The second intifada, which erupted in September
2000, has been sharply contrasted with the first in
terms of participation by both women and civil
society as a whole (Johnson and Kuttab 2001).
Aside from the distinct features of the second
intifada, including Israel’s excessive force, the con-
sequent extreme risk of public protest, and the
Palestinian turn to militarism, the demobilization
of the interim period and the profound crisis in
Palestinian nationalism in the wake of the Oslo
accords weakened abilities to mobilize and organ-
ize (Hammami and Johnson 1999). Although scat-
tered candlelight marches and other peaceful
protests occurred, usually sponsored by women’s
organizations, women’s main avenue of protest lay
in neighborhood and community activities such as
participation in funeral marches and visiting fami-
lies of the dead and wounded. If in the first intifada
previous practices of steadfastness ripened into
organized resistance, ßumùd and organized resist-
ance in the second intifada seem sharply divided,
with women, and most civilians, in an increasingly
difficult struggle to maintain the rudiments of
daily life. The separation of communities through
Israeli policies of closure and siege also weakened
political organization, while borders and crossing
points – and the building of the separation wall –
became sites of both women’s formal and informal
protest, side by side with rites of humiliation and
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Palestine at the crossroads, New York 1990, 53–72.Penny JohnsonPurdah in South AsiaThe issue of purdah (literally “curtain,” limiting
interaction between men and women outside well
defined categories, see Papanek 1982, 194) became
central to the effort of the women’s movement in
India in the early twentieth century. It was viewed
as the one custom most responsible for confining
Hindu and Muslim women to their traditional
domestic roles. Women’s protest against purdah
provided a commonality of interests that appeared
to supersede communal differences and furthered
cooperation on political and economic issues. The
Indian women’s movement was the culmination of
efforts by women leaders, both Hindu and Muslim,
to move away from the shadow of male reformers
of the nineteenth century and to become directly
involved in women’s education and their social and
economic independence, the very issues that had
traditionally held them back.
The sanction for purdah or seclusion of Muslim
women is ascribed to an injunction in the Qur±àn
urging modesty for men and women: “Say to the
believers, that they cast down their eyes.... And
say to believing women, that they cast down their
eyes... and reveal not their adornments save such
as outward, and let them cast their veils over their
bosoms” (Arberry 1973, 49). Among the Hindus
the custom had been institutionalized into the
social structure, for which justification was found
in the Puranas, Mahabharata, and the Ramayana
(Stuers 1968, 79, Gordon 1968, 7). Muslim purdah
in the early twentieth century was characterized by
the wearing of an over garment or burqa≠. This was
considered an advance, since it enabled mobility
outside the house while still maintaining seclusion
(Amin 1996, 130).
Purdah, along with semi-religious social taboos,
became identified with child marriages and the
inability of child widows to be independent, as
Hindu reformers in the nineteenth century turned
their attention to the situation of women. The cus-
tom of purdah had led to the closing of options