Gender And Political Support: Women And Hamas In The Occupied Palestinian Territories (Gender In A Global/Local World)

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Overview

This book explores the gender gap in political support in the Occupied Palestinian Territories whereby more women than men support Hamas (a party portrayed by the Western media as repressive of women's rights), and more men than women support Fatah. The author shows how economic interests and religion largely explain this gender gap, and explores how the Israeli occupation, the Israel-Palestine conflict, women's rights, nationalism, and political repression interact with Palestinian political support. She demonstrates how religion interacts with nationalist discourses, which in turn reinforce different gender roles in Palestine. She also shows how patronage impacts political support in a gendered way, with Fatah's ability to provide employment opportunities being strongly linked to their support base amongst men. The book concludes with an analysis of similar trends in the wider Middle East, with women across the region tending to prefer religious parties, compared with men. While making an important contribution to studies of Palestinian politics, this book also has implications for much broader issues, such as explorations of gender and political support beyond the Western context and understanding widespread female support for Islamist parties in the Middle East. It highlights the importance of exploring questions of political support within political context so as to understand the warping effects of nationalism and the nuances of social gender divisions. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of gender studies, Middle East studies, and comparative politics. It will also appeal to those with a broader interest in Middle East politics and development.