The Women of Hamas: Subaltern Silence or Participative Voice?

Abstract

This article aims to investigate and evaluate, using the approach of Subaltern Studies and the proposal of the cultural anthropologist Saba Mahmood (related to the agency or the capacity for action of women involved in religious movements), the role of female members of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” from its emergence in 1987 until 2006, when the Movement’s political wing won the elections of the Legislative Council.

We are going to talk about “women” as a minority or subaltern group with the capability to challenge the specific context in which they spend their lives. The following are questions which guide our study: Do the media images of Muslim women (especially those produced by the press and the cinema —in which persist the definition of the East in opposition to the West—) constitute an authentic portrait of the Palestinian reality? Can we talk about female empowerment within Hamas?