Palestinian and Iraqi Women Refugees: an Examination of the Past Sixty Years Kim Anthony Grand Valley State University

McNair Scholars Journal

Volume 12 | Issue 1 Article 2

2008 Palestinian and Iraqi Women Refugees: An Examination of the Past Sixty Years Kim Anthony Grand Valley State University

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Recommended Citation Anthony, Kim (2008) "Palestinian and Iraqi Women Refugees: An Examination of the Past Sixty Years," McNair Scholars Journal: Vol. 12: Iss. 1, Article 2. Available at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair/vol12/iss1/2

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Introduction and the worldwide attention they have received due to their increasing plight. Palestinian and Iraqi women refugees By better understanding Palestinian face daily challenges that many women and Iraqi women’s roles in their societ- throughout the world do not. These ies and histories, researchers can reject refugees cope with issues like poverty, personal biases and make well-informed deprived living conditions, violence, and recommendations to help alleviate the sexual abuse, while access to medical collective concerns of these refugees. and educational facilities remains limit- This paper also aims to make educated ed. They depend on assistance provided recommendations to governmental and by the United Nations, the United States, humanitarian organizations thus adding and host nations. According to several to the dialogue on the social concerns of refugee commissions, the chronic under- these women. Further, it attempts to pre- Kim Anthony funding of the United Nations’ humani- dict and project future needs of Palestin- McNair Scholar tarian organizations threatens to force a ian and Iraqi women refugees. severe financial cut in the number and level of services provided to refugees. The Middle East: A History of Coloni- Urgent action is needed to ensure basic zation supplies, health care, adequate education, and psychological support reach families It is important first to take a step back sheltered in occupied countries.1 and revisit the historical role foreign Researchers have investigated Pales- involvement has played in the Middle tinian refugee women to better under- East to comprehend the current political, stand their situation and to help alleviate economic, and humanitarian climate in the historical and social conditions that the region. Professor Mark LeVine com- challenge the diaspora. This project ments on the importance of understand- examined Palestine’s sixty-year history, ing how colonization has shaped Middle beginning with Israel’s declaration of Eastern history in Why They Don’t Hate Sebastian Maisel, Ph.D. statehood in 1948. This project is a com- Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil; he Faculty Mentor parative analysis that examines the re- states, “Without the colonial context we search conducted on Palestinian refugees have no way of understanding the roots to determine how well that body of work of the country’s more recent history, can apply to Iraqi refugee women inter- including the dynamics of U.S. rule.”2 nally displaced following the American- Many of the Middle East’s current led invasion in 2003. This paper seeks problems have deep roots in the man- to answer the following questions: From ner Europeans colonized this area. For which social and economic background example, faulty mediation and deception do these women originate? How did by British and French imperial powers this affect their displacement? Where helped increase the tensions within the did they go and what was their social Middle East. In 1916, the secret Sykes- situation? How do Palestinian and Iraqi Picot Agreement between Great Britain refugees differ on these points? and France discussed the division of the This information becomes especially Ottoman Empire and its placement under vital considering the limited research foreign mandates. The interaction be- Danielle DeMuth, Ph.D. conducted on Iraqi refugee women. tween ethnic populations and the distri- Faculty Mentor Palestinian and Iraqi refugee women are bution of natural resources came second two significant populations worth study- to securing national interests of foreign ing because of their growing numbers powers. The agreement, however, con-

1 World Vision Staff, “Middle East/East Europe: Five Years after War, Refugee Crisis Looms Large for Iraq,” World Vision International, http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf/maindocs/5033B7CC8863D4EF88257412005E3119?open document. 2 Mark LeVine, Why They Don’t Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil (Oxford: Oneworld Publications Limited, 2005), 10. GVSU McNair Scholars Journal VOLUME 12, 2008 5 tradicted what British officials promised catastrophe”—another war commenced fourth millennium BC, and still exists to- Arabs and Sharif Hussein of Mecca two in 1967 when Israel launched a preemp- day in the war-torn modern state of Iraq. years earlier in 1915. Sir Henry McMa- tive strike against Egypt’s air forces that Similar to the Palestinians, many of hon originally promised Hussein an Arab caused Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to de- the problems with contemporary Iraq Kingdom in exchange for a military alli- clare war. Two opposing forces, the Pal- have roots in the European colonization ance to help defeat the Ottoman Empire estinians and Israelis, fought to control of the Middle East after World War I. In and its ally Germany. Hussein believed certain areas they both considered right- 1920, Iraq’s borders were drawn by the this Arab kingdom would include all of fully their own in what has been called British and included three former prov- Palestine plus Iraq, Syria, and Tran- the Six-Day War. In the aftermath of the inces of the Ottoman Empire without sjordan but the correspondence did not war, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, Sinai regard to the diverse populations, natural lucidly state exact borders. When the Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan resources, and geographic terrains that Central Powers were defeated in 1918, Heights. Israeli presence in the Occu- existed there.7 Twelve years later, Iraq be- the once great Ottoman Empire dissolved pied Territories has furthered Palestinian came the first Arab state to gain indepen- into British- and French-controlled hostilities and resentment; protests and dence from the British mandate. Along mandates. The colonization, deception, resistance became, and remain, daily with the influence of colonial rule, Iraq’s and miscommunication between Euro- affairs. Since the Six-Day War, national- cultural, economic, and political history pean powers and the Arab world helped ism, fundamentalism, violence, and ter- has been shaped by the Hashemite Royal complicate relations that exist to this day rorism on both sides has prevented peace Family, the Nationalists, the Iraqi Com- in the Middle East. from reaching the Middle East. munist Party of the 1950s and 1960s, the Colonization and foreign interven- After Israeli’s declaration of state- Kurdish parties, Saddam Hussein and the tion in the Middle East helped produce hood, four to five million Palestinians Ba’athist Party, and, more recently, the tensions between Arabs and Jews. The and their descendents have been dis- US occupation.8 creation of a Jewish state contradicted placed throughout the Middle East and Wars have left a lasting impact on what Arthur James Balfour, British the world. Within the Middle East, this Iraq’s legacy. In 1980, the first of four Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, conflict affects neighboring countries conflicts involving Iraq began when stated in 1917: “His Majesty’s Govern- as refugees pour across borders seeking Saddam Hussein declared war on the ment view with favor the establishment asylum. Across the globe, nations are newly established Islamic state of Iran. in Palestine of a national home for the forced to make foreign policy decisions The Iran-Iraq war lasted into 1988 and Jewish people. . . Nothing shall be done regarding financial and military support caused billions of dollars in damage and to prejudice the civil and religious rights for Palestine and Israel. International millions of human causalities on both of the existing non-Jewish communities foreign policy toward the Arab-Israeli sides. Hussein financed the war with in Palestine.”3 After the foreign mandate conflict can create admiration or enmity. money borrowed from foreign lenders, and end of British colonial rule in Pales- including neighboring Kuwait. With tine, David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Iraq’s Historical Information Iraq indebted to Kuwait, among other Minister of Israel, declared on May 14, reasons, Hussein commenced another 1948, the establishment of a Jewish state Again, to comprehend the current po- war in 1990 and invaded the oil-rich in Palestine. This challenged the Balfour litical, economic, and humanitarian situ- country; a year later, American troops declaration because the subsequent Arab- ation in Iraq, it is important first to take entered the conflict known as Operation Israeli War and the growing violence in a step back and briefly revisit the history. Desert Storm. Hussein’s actions in Ku- the region forced six hundred to seven Phebe Marr, author of The Modern His- wait resulted in internationally imposed hundred thousand Palestinians—about tory of Iraq, states, “When its human and economic sanctions that lasted from 1990 80 percent of Palestinians living in 1948 material resources have been well man- until 2003. They are considered by some Palestine—to take shelter in refugee aged, Iraq has been a center of civiliza- to be the most comprehensive of all time. camps throughout neighboring Arab tion and creativity whose benefits have These sanctions unintentionally hindered countries set up by the United Nations.4 spread to the rest of the world; when its the provision of social services such as The years between 1947 and 1967 leaders have failed, the result has been health and education, while the levels of form the nucleus of the Arab-Israeli chaos, civil war, and economic stagna- poverty and malnutrition increased. Add- conflict.5 Almost twenty years after the tion.”6 This has proven true throughout ing to the hardships created by sanctions Israeli’s War of Independence—or the Iraq’s history, beginning with the “cradle was the onset of the second Gulf War, or Palestinian’s al-nakba, meaning “the of civilization” in Mesopotamia in the Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began 3 Arnold J. Toynbee, “The Middle East, Past and Present,” in The Arab-Israeli Impasse: Expressions of Moderate Viewpoints on the Arab-Israeli Conflict, ed. Majdia D. Khadduri (Washington: Robert B. Luce, Inc., 1968), 53. 4 Nahla Abdo, “Women, War and Colonialism: Palestinian Experiences,” Fireweed: Women, Race, War + Resistance 77, (2002): 48. 5 Gregory Harms, The Palestine Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction (London: Pluto Press, 2005), 85. 6 Phebe Marr, The Modern History of Iraq, 2nd ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2004), 3. 7 Ibid., 8 Charles Tripp, A History of Iraq, 3rd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 2.

6 Palestinian and Iraqi Women Refugees: An Examination of the Past Sixty Years in 2003 and continues today. America’s Estimates of Palestinan Refugees and Their Destinations, 1948-1949 War on Terror shifted its focus from Af- Britis h US U nite d Private Israeli Is ra e li Palestinian ghanistan to Iraq to dismantle Hussein’s Destination regime utilizing the rhetoric of Iraq’s Government Estimates Nations Estimates Government Sources Gaza 210,000 208,000 280,000 200,000 - 201,173 violation of the United Nations’ charters West Bank 320,000 - 190,000 200,000 - 363,689 regarding weapons of mass destruction. Jordan, Syria, 280,000 667,000 256,000 250,000 - 284,324 Since the occupation of Iraq and the dis- Lebanon, etc. solution of the central authority, war and Total 810,000 875,000 726,000 650,000 520,000 850,276 Estimates Feb. 1949 1953 Sept. 1949 End of 1949 1948 Nov. 1952 sectarian violence between religious and made ethnic groups forces Iraqis to seek safer Facts and Figures About Palestinians (Washington, DC: Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, 1992), 13. homes and has created one of the largest migrations of asylum-seekers since the Palestinians’ plight in 1948. An estimat- Many Palestinians fled their homes due and there were stories of attacks on wom- ed two million Iraqi refugees have fled to increasing violence; however, the fear en’s honour. Our villagers were especial- into neighboring countries, which has of the capabilities of Israeli soldiers also ly concerned to protect their women, and strained the economies and natural re- served as a secondary motive for Pales- because of this fear, many of the northern sources of those host countries. Another tinian exodus. Rumors of massacres and villages evacuated even before the war 2.2 million Iraqis have moved within the rape traveled quickly from one village to reached them.”14 Fear of massacres and country to search for safer land.9 another.12 Samia, an Arab Christian, de- threats on women’s honor encouraged scribes the situation to Wendy Pearlman: many Palestinians to take flight. Socioeconomic challenges confront The Collective Concerns of Palestin- We were living in West Jerusalem in Palestinians every day. In a dialogue ians and Iraqis 1948, and we evacuated our house and moderated by the BBC, Mona, a Pales- moved to Birzeit, which was my father tinian student from Gaza, and Anav, an To understand how the refugee crisis and grandfather’s hometown. We left Israeli literature graduate, exchange three affects women, it is critical to first look out of fear. People were so afraid after letters describing their lives in Gaza and at the collective concerns of Palestin- they heard about the massacre at Deir in Southern Israel, respectively. Mona ians and Iraqis. According to the United Yassin. Members of the Irgun and states: Nations Relief and Works Agency for Jewish underground came in trucks Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s to the Palestinian areas and Gaza is like hell. . . When Israel Web site, Palestinian refugees are de- announced, “Look at what has dismantled its illegal settlements and fined as “persons whose normal place of happened! Leave the country! This disengaged from the Gaza Strip in residence was Palestine between June can happen to you, too” . . . So, many 2005, I was happy that I would finally 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their of the refugees left because they were be able to visit my friend who lives homes and means of livelihood as a afraid.13 in the middle of the Strip whenever I result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. . wanted. But Israel didn't leave us [in] . UNRWA's definition of a refugee also Violence and fear proliferated in Pales- peace. How would you feel if someone covers the descendants of persons who tinian villages because crimes against else controlled your every movement? became refugees in 1948.”10 In 1948, the women and children threatened the core How would you feel if you didn't have Arab population of Palestine totaled 1.4 of Palestinian life—the family. Palestin- the right to move inside your country; million; 900,000 Palestinians inhabited ian tradition values the protection of if you were prevented from studying the territory that became Israel, 840,000 women and children within the immedi- abroad; if the cost of food and fuel was of whom were displaced. About 300,000 ate family; a Palestinian peasant man determined by someone else Palestinians sought asylum outside of once said, “My village, Sa’sa, didn’t closing your borders; if you spent most Palestine, while the rest attempted to leave because of a battle. . . There were of your nights in darkness? Why are relocate in Gaza or the West Bank.11 other massacres—Jish, Deir Yasseen— patients prevented from having medicine?15 9 Refugees International, The Iraqi Displacement Crisis, http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/ detail/9679. 10 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, http://www.un.org/ unrwa/refugees/whois.html. 11 Rosemary Sayigh, Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries (London: Zed Press, 1979), 65. 12 Samih K. Farsoun and Naseer H. Aruri, Palestine and the Palestinians, 2nd ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2006), 113. 13 Wendy Pearlman, Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada (New York: Nation Books, 2003), 7. 14 Sayigh, Palestinians, 64, quoted in Farsoun and Aruri, Palestine, 113. 15 BBC News, “Sderot and Gaza: Letter Exchange,” March 6, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7270785. stm. GVSU McNair Scholars Journal VOLUME 12, 2008 7 Mona describes the situation that faces United States. many Palestinians living in Gaza, while Ahlam Allan-Kader, a 25-year-old Pales- Migration of Iraqi Refugees tinian student at Grand Valley State Uni- Number of versity, described her four years spent in Location Refugees high school in the West Bank as “inter- Internally displaced 1,900,000 esting.” She remembers how her family Syria 1,200,000 and the families living in the neighboring Jordan 750,000 refugee camp used to interact. Ahlam Lebanon 40,000 said, “We used to go to their weddings, they’d go to ours. . . They are sweet Iran 54,000 people, they are trying to make due with Egypt 100,000 what they have. Everything is so expen- Saudi Arabia sive, and a lot of them cannot afford to and Gulf States 200,000 16 update their concrete homes.” Without BBC News, “UN Urges Help for Iraqi Refugees,” a homeland of their own, generations of April 7, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_ Palestinian refugees are forced to live in east/6562601.stm#map camps and rely on host governments and international organizations to provide medical and social services for survival. Like Palestinians, millions of Iraqi refugees sought protection within their homeland, throughout the Middle East, and abroad because of the waves of internal violence and war. About half of the total refugee population migrated within Iraq to search for safer land while the other half fled abroad. Children comprise the large majority of internally displaced Iraqis in early 2008—about 60 percent of the total population in exodus. Women make up the second largest percentage of internally displaced Iraqis, comprising about 25 percent. Cumulative numbers of Internally Displaced People for 2008 Number of % % % Month/2008 Individuals Children Women Men January 2,172,657 58.7 24.1 17.2 February 2,196,763 58.6 24.1 17.3 March 2,225,363 58.4 24.3 17.3 April 2,173,154 59.2 23.1 17.7 Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, The Internally Displaced Persons in Iraq: Update 34, May 28, 2008, http://www.iraqredcrescent.org/IDP_34_up- date_EN.pdf.

The majority of Iraqi refugees who fled abroad are in Jordan and Syria while a smaller number have sought refuge in Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Sweden, and the

17 Tripp, A History of Iraq, 308. 18 Rachelle Marshall, “As Iraq Moves Toward Theocracy, U.S. Squelches Democracy in Palestine,” Washington Re- port on Middle East Affairs 25, no. 5 (2006): 7-9.

8 Palestinian and Iraqi Women Refugees: An Examination of the Past Sixty Years Iraqis fled their homes because of security. Upon entrance into these na- later a car bomb went off outside and violence and breakdowns in security. tions, refugees often face resentment and completely demolished the office.”26 During 2006 and early 2007, an aver- are treated like outsiders, tourists, or ille- Middle-class Iraqis, and especially those age of 100 Iraqi civilians were killed gal immigrants.22 Iraqis face difficulties working with the Americans, have been per day.17 Fundamentalist insurgents add gaining legal work in host countries such targeted by radical insurgents. to the hardships of religious minorities. as Jordan and Syria and are increasingly For example, in Basra, a mini-theocratic desperate for and in need of humanitar- Palestinian Migration and the Implica- state run by militiamen imposed a ban ian assistance. Refugees face challenges tions for Women on alcohol and women were forced to in finding housing, obtaining food, and wear headscarves.18 The BBC’s Paul gaining access to health and education Almost sixty years before the Iraqi Wood visited Basra in December 2007 systems.23 refugee crisis, many Palestinians first and discovered that “forty-two women Personal and family security com- looked for refuge close to home within have been murdered over the past three mands a central role in Iraqi’s decisions Gaza and the West Bank because they months for wearing make-up, or failing to leave. The San Francisco Chronicle believed they could return home within to wear the hejab. . . One official figures reported in January 2007 that “all kinds a couple of weeks. However, most half of the city's Christian population has of people, from university professors to Palestinians could not return to their fled—and that's probably an underesti - bakers, have been targeted by militias, homes because of increasing violence, mate.”19 Insurgent threats, government- insurgents and criminals. An estimated restrictive occupation of their land, and protected militias, death squads, and 331 school teachers were slain in the first frequent demolition of homes. After the foreign militaries instilled fear into four months of last year, according to realization that they could not go back, Iraqis—many of whom have large fami- Human Rights Watch, and at least 2,000 a minority of middle- to upper-class lies they must protect—and they are left Iraqi doctors have been killed and 250 Palestinian refugees moved into neigh- no choice but to evacuate. kidnapped since the 2003 U.S. inva- boring Arab states to rent apartments and Iraqis across every socioeconomic sion.”24 Statistics show 40 percent of start a new life in cities such as Amman, class, ethnicity, and religious background Iraq’s middle class, including lawyers, Beirut, Cairo, and Damascus.27 However, have been overwhelmed by the internal doctors, teachers, and businessmen, have the bulk of Palestinian refugees lived off migration. Often, families move once for fled Iraq. Professional Iraqis, especially of the land as poor peasant farmers with immediate relief from pertinent threats, those working with Americans, are little savings. These refugees became the such as nearby violence and bombings, susceptible to threats on their lives and vast majority who relocated into camps and then move again for security, hous- those of family members as well. For provided by the United Nations and other ing, water, and electricity.20 Dr. Said example, Khalil, an artist, painted por- humanitarian organizations. In her article Hakki, president of the Red Crescent, traits for US troops and began receiving “Reconstructing Place for Palestin- another international humanitarian non- anonymous and threatening letters. Three ian Refugee Women: The Dialects of governmental organization, said some weeks after the first letter, insurgents Empowerment,” Abu-Ghazaleh presents of the most tragic consequences of the burned his gallery to the ground; shortly various Palestinian women’s firsthand internal Iraqi migration turn up where after this attack, a firebomb was thrown accounts of life within various refugee destitute Iraqi villagers have collected into his living room.25 Ammar Abdul- camps. She reported that refugee camp in camps, shantytowns, and urban slums lah, who also relocated to Damascus, life in 1948 led to physical ailments be- after leaving behind their homes and said, “I used to run a translating bureau cause of space restrictions, crowded liv- belongings.21 in Baghdad. I left in November last year ing conditions, housing deficiencies, and Some Iraqis turned to family and after I received a threatening letter with poor overall infrastructure in the camp. friends for refuge within Iraq, while a bullet in it saying don't ever open the She quoted a woman from the Balata others moved into other countries to seek office again. I closed up, and a few days Camp in the West Bank who said, “Here,

19 Paul Wood, “Uncertainty Follows Basra Exit,” BBC News, December 15, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/ middle_east/7145597.stm. 20 James Glanz and Alissa J. Rubin, “Future Look of Iraq Complicated by Internal Migration,” The New York Times, September 19, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/world/middleeast/19displaced.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. 21 Ibid. 22 Carolyn Lochhead, “Conflict in Iraq: Iraq Refugee Crisis Exploding,”San Francisco Chronicle, January 16, 2007, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/16/MNG2MNJBIS1.DTL. 23 Refugees International, The Iraqi Displacement Crisis. 24 Lochhead, “Conflict in Iraq.” 25 BBC News, “Iraqi Voices: Escaping Abroad,” January 9, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6176457. stm. 26 BBC News, “Iraqi Refugee Stories,” April 16, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6552267.stm. 27 Ibid. 28 Ilham Abu-Ghazaleh, “Reconstructing Place for Palestinian Refugee Women: The Dialects of Empowerment,” Canadian Women Studies 15, no. 2/3 (1995): pg. 81. GVSU McNair Scholars Journal VOLUME 12, 2008 9 one gets sick out of depression.”28 This and sewers. In fact, in 1992, the West other international humanitarian or- response was common among Palestin- Bank and Gaza Strip’s refugee camps ganizations, Palestinian women in the ian refugee camp dwellers. had proper sewage in only 31 percent Israeli-occupied territories have “borne New generations of Palestinian and 27 percent of camps, respectively. the brunt” of the occupation.36 The refugees encounter the same difficul- Otherwise, camps utilize open sewers.33 combined relationship between poverty, ties that challenged Palestinian refugees This poses a serious health risk that is occupation, and violence helps promote sixty years ago. However, the arrival of intensified by overcrowding. women’s second-rate position in society. new conflicts such as the 1967 war and Because of the high population den- The poor socioeconomic conditions of two Palestinian intifadas (“uprisings”) sity, medical issues are rampant while the refugee camps are directly related to have increased the number of refugees medical services are overextended. On violence against women. These violent and complicated the situation in the average, each doctor in the health clinics acts add to women’s hardships because Middle East. The number of Palestin- attends to one hundred patients per day, of the cultural norms that discourage ian refugees who live throughout the and refugees are sometimes forced to women from seeking help for domestic Middle East continues to grow. Accord- seek medical services outside the camp and violent abuse; thus they become easy ing to UNRWA, the number of registered but cannot because of blockades.34 Over- targets for men. In her work A Feminist Palestinian refugees from 1950 to 2005 crowding and poor sanitation can rapidly Politics of Health Care, Elise G. Young increased from 914,000 to 4.4 million, a spread sickness and disease. Garbage and wrote that “women are specific targets 20.7 percent increase29; about 1.3 million waste fill the streets when trash removal of policies meant to demoralize, dispos- of those refugees live in fifty-eight rec- services cannot maneuver the crowded sess, and disempower Palestinians in ognized camps in the Gaza Strip, West roads or narrow alleys. Likewise, bac- the Occupied Territories. These policies Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.30 teria and infectious disease can easily include humiliation of women arrested, About one million of these Palestinian infiltrate drinking water reserves, which through physical and sexual terrorism; refugees live throughout the twenty- can lead to gastro-intestinal problems deportation; and attempts to control re- seven camps in the Gaza Strip and West such as dysentery that most negatively production.”37 The violent acts commit- Bank; these camps face poor socioeco- affect infants, children, and the elderly. ted against women create psychological nomic conditions with an extremely Inadequate sanitation and unclean water, problems for the victims and often for high population density. For example, especially in overcrowded camps, “are their families as well. Ahmed, a clinical in Gaza’s Beach Camp, about 81,000 classic preconditions for infections such psychologist, comments on the psycho- Palestinian refugees live within a single as viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic logical well-being of Palestinian women: square kilometer.31 The high population diseases. . . Birzeit Community Health “Palestinian women have experienced density has created other problems— Unit reports that 48 percent of elemen- a double suffering. Some women have UNRWA’s Web site claims that in Camp tary schoolchildren in three West Bank been beaten and tortured inside Israeli Number One, located in the West Bank, camps were infected with intestinal prisons. Hundreds of thousands have lost “there is serious overcrowding, and the parasites; malnutrition accompanied the their husbands when they were killed, narrow alleys are in desperate need of parasitic infections, making the children detained, or deported. Our traditional repair. During funerals, the deceased are more susceptible to infection.”35 Prevent- ways have not prepared Palestinian usually passed through windows from able sicknesses such as waterborne and women for the responsibility of being the one shelter to another in order to reach respiratory diseases are common among sole head of a household in a husband’s the camp's main street.”32Though this overcrowded Palestinian refugee camps absence.”38 Violence promotes and may seem extreme, overcrowdedness because of overextended medical clinics, perpetuates women’s seemingly second- is causing problems in other sectors as poor sanitation, and contaminated water. class position in society by forcing them well, such as basic infrastructure of roads According to the United Nations and to choose safety, by staying within the

29 http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/whois.html. 30 Ibid., http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/wheredo.html. 31 Ibid., http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/gaza.html. 32 Ibid., http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/westbank/camp1.html. 33 Farsoun and Aruri, Palestine, 122. 34 Mona Marshy, Social and Psychological Effects of Overcrowding in Palestinian Refugee Camps in the West Bank and Gaza: Literature Review and Preliminary Assessment of the Problem, International Development Research Centre, http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/MEPP/PRRN/ marshy.html#3%20Social%20and%20Psychological%20Effects. 35 Ibid. 36 BBC News, “Palestinian Women ‘suffer doubly,’” March 31, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4394253.stm. 37 Elise G. Young, A Feminist Politics of Health Care: The case of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation, 1979-1982, ed. Tamar Mayer (London: Routledge, 1994), 179. 28 Pearlman, Occupied Voices, 196.

10 Palestinian and Iraqi Women Refugees: An Examination of the Past Sixty Years domestic domain, or risk exploitation in and concluded that because they cannot associated with American involvement the public arena. Palestinian women of work, these women are “at particular risk in Iraq such as the instability in security all socioeconomic classes in the Occu- of sexual exploitation and abuse; they and women’s position in society. Similar pied Territories share common griev- may be forced into prostitution and sex to many other personal accounts, she ances of gender oppression and violence work as they struggle to support their seemed to have mixed within her a sense from foreign occupiers and Palestinian families. Most refugees cannot afford to of nostalgia for the personal safekeep- men. Women encounter complexities that send their children to school or pay for ing provided by Saddam’s regime and arise from overpopulation in the refugee even basic health care.”39 According to hopefulness for a better future, especially camps effecting safety, health, educa- the New York Times and other sources, an for women. tion, and employment. Further, violence estimated 50,000 Iraqi women and young Before 2003, Maram remembered, “It against women from both occupying and girls sell their bodies into prostitution.40 was better because there was security. Palestinian men puts women in a second- Iraqi women refugees, both abroad and You could go out in the middle of the ary position in society. internally displaced, face increasing rates night and it was safe.” But she was opti- Since 1948, the importance of the Pal- of violence—especially sexual violence, mistic, even happy, when the Americans estinian family has become evident, re- mortal threats, and kidnappings. A World invaded because of the potential change inforced by their efforts to keep families Health Organization survey conducted it could bring. “We didn’t have satellite, together and protect the honor of their in 2006-07 found that 21.2 percent of cell phones, or even the Internet. . . We women. Sixty years ago, Palestinians Iraqi women had experienced physical have more freedoms with the Internet; left their homeland because of increasing violence.41 we can chat, and with cell phones we can violence, insecurity, and atrocities com- Not only do women face challenges keep in contact with family members.” mitted at Deir Yassin and Jish. Moreover, created by violence and sexual exploita- However, her attitude changed when Palestinians wanted to stay close to their tion, educational and literacy services security within Iraq worsened. homes because they believed a return are on the decline. Ironically, Iraq was As a translator working in a hospital was eminent. But generations later, they one of the few countries in the Middle on an American base in Mosul, Maram’s remain in camps with barely livable East that invested in the education of biggest concern was personal and conditions. Violence proliferates in the its women. In the early 1980s, “the familial safety. Often, Iraqis and their Occupied Territories and this trend ap- Ba’th position on women was relatively families who associate themselves with pears to be repeating itself with the Iraqi progressive to start with, encouraging Americans become targets for kidnap- women displaced during the American their education, literacy, and professional ping, rape, or murder. Maram worked at occupation since 2003. advancement. Initially, the war encour- the hospital for fourteen months and left aged this by providing jobs for women the base only four times, each time with Iraqi Migration and the Implications and integrating them further into the armed American protection because she for Women workforce, particularly professional and was afraid someone would see her and educated women.” 42 But this situation put her or her family at risk. When asked The American-led invasion of Iraq began to change during the late 1980s what she would like to see in Iraq’s has garnered considerable interna- because of heightened militarization that future, Maram replied, “I want each tional attention that has shed light on prepared Iraq for war. In the late 1990s, woman to have the choice to drive, go the country’s refugee crisis. Although women’s illiteracy grew to 55 percent.43 to college, finish [school], work, and do research on Iraqi women refugees is As a result of the Iran-Iraq War, the inva- something valuable with their life; and far less abundant than the research on sion of Kuwait, and sanctions, economic most importantly, have security.”44 Palestinian women, it does exist. Global hardships increased in the late 1980s and Research studied Iraqi women refugees into the 1990s which raised the number Conclusion and Recommendations and discovered Iraqi women’s rights of women-headed households and work- and living conditions have deteriorated ing women. Since the latest war in Iraq, As long as there is conflict in the Mid- since the American-led invasion in 2003. education and literacy services offered to dle East, the demand for research con- The Women’s Commission for Refugee women continue to decline. ducted on women living in Palestinian Women and Children, a nongovernmen- Maram, a 26-year-old Iraqi woman and Iraqi occupied zones will continue to tal organization, conducted a study on who came to the United States just two grow because the relations between war, Iraqi women refugees who fled to Jordan years ago, reiterated the complex issues violence, occupation, migration patterns,

39 Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Iraqi Refugee Women and Youth in Jordan: Reproductive Health Findings, http://www.womenscommission.org/pdf/jo_rh.pdf. 40 Katherine Zoepf, “Desperate Iraqi Refugees Turn to Sex Trade in Syria,” New York Times, May 29, 2007, http:// www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/world/middleeast/29syria.html. 41 Afif Sarhan, “New Iraq… Oppressed Women,” Global Policy Forum, July 27, 2008, http://www.globalpolicy.org/ security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2008/0727oppressed.htm. 42 Marr, Modern History, 209. 43 Nadje Sadig Al-Ali, Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present (London: Zed Books, 2007), 193. 44 Maram Weam, Personal Interview, August 20, 2008.

GVSU McNair Scholars Journal VOLUME 12, 2008 and the social role women fulfill will because the amount of potential intervie- continue to pique academics’ interest. It wees and their fresh experiences increase is important to study women in conflict exponentially. areas because on October 31, 2000, the What I have learned from the Palestin- U.N. Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, ian’s sixty-year history is that the Israeli and Security expressed concern that occupation, checkpoints, and blockades “[c]ivilians, particularly women and have hampered development in the children, account for the vast majority of educational, employment, and social sec- those adversely affected by armed con- tor. Also, the crowded conditions of the flict, including as refugees and internally refugee camps that have led to the physi- displaced persons, and increasingly are cal ailments and violence against women targeted by combatants and armed ele- continue to rise. ments, and [the international community Iraqis are facing similar difficulties. has recognized] the consequent impact American occupation has compromised this has on durable peace and reconcilia- the security Saddam provided for his tion.”45 The latter part of this statement— Iraqi citizens. Taking from the Palestin- “the consequent impact this has on du- ian’s sixty-year experience and project- rable peace and reconciliation”—packs ing my findings onto Iraqis, I would a heavy punch. The Security Council suggest the following: First is for policy believed without women’s protection, makers to recognize that Iraqis, men and involvement in peace negotiations, and women, do not make up one monolithic appointment to positions of power, the bloc of ethnicities, religious identi- troubled area cannot achieve peace. ties, and personal beliefs. Secondly, the Resolution 1325 addressed the adverse provincial Iraqi authority and American impact of armed conflict on women, and forces need to protect and help serve the recognized that women’s contributions best interests of women by providing a to peacekeeping and peace-building help safe environment for women to voice promote stability. their concerns, taking into consideration In the future, I hope to continue my the importance of the role the family study on Palestinian and Iraqi women plays in Middle Eastern society. Thirdly, and the complexities they face as time increase awareness of the resources progresses. To modify and improve available to women as victims of vio- my study, it would have proved most lence and sexual abuse. Fourthly, provide beneficial to conduct additional personal educational services for women and interviews. Because of time constraints, increase awareness of these facilities. I performed only two interviews—I had Lastly, to implement these recommenda- the intention of doing twenty. Once I tions, it is necessary to allocate more sat down and talked with Ahlam and funds to successfully run these programs. Maram, their stories and experiences furthered my research and understanding of the Middle East by giving a personal touch to something that seems so far away. When I started researching, I did not realize how hard and time-consum- ing it would be to locate, contact, and follow up on sources. Often, I found my- self tied up in the “run around”; sources would point me to in one direction and I would locate them, only to get pointed in another direction or redirected to the first person I talked to. Further, interviews conducted in the Middle East or heav- ily populated areas, as opposed to West Michigan, would enhance my research

45 United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1325 (2000), United Nations, http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/ GEN/N00/720/18/PDF/N0072018.pdf?OpenElement.

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