Reconstructing Gender and Activism: The Case of Women’s Initiatives in Al-Wihdat Refugee Camp

This paper explores the various ways that major social, political, and economic issues influence Palestinian women’s consciousness and initiatives in Jordan. Based on a set of interviews with self-identified female activists in Al-Wihdat refugee camp, I contextualize my findings in the multiple institutional and discursive realms through which female identity is constituted, such as nationalism, socioeconomic status, humanitarian development, and community. By investigating these women’s perspectives on a personal basis, I seek to uncover female subjective identities which subvert, complicate, and contest dominant constructions of the needs, roles, and ambitions of Palestinian refugee women