ABSTRACT

Using feminist anthropology and interview data, this article investigates the gendered dimension of hunger striking in Israeli prisons. It draws on other cases from Ireland to the United States to explore the gendered nature of resistance to political imprisonment. I argue that women hunger strikers are active participants who weaponize their lives to resist the Israeli matrix of power and patriarchal societal norms. There have been less women in number when compared to male prisoners, but women have been more effective in collectively coordinating their pioneering action. Through necroresistance (transforming their body to a site of resistance) and the strategy of sumud (Arabic for ‘steadfastness’), women prisoners practice a dual resistance of the colonial authorities and the patriarchal society — simultaneously reclaiming ownership of their bodies and lives from both systems. This does not entail constituting their bodies as masculine (or de-feminizing themselves) so they are protected from sexual abuse. Rather, they insist on feminizing their experience and challenging gendered stereotypes of women as ‘victims’ with ‘fragile bodies’. For them, gender is not a barrier but a motivational factor in which self-sacrifice to protest injustice is far superior to enduring the wrongs of political imprisonment.

摘要

本文使用女权人类学和访谈数据，调查以色列监狱绝食的性别维度。它借鉴了从爱尔兰到美国的其他案例，探讨了抵制政治监禁的性别本质。我认为，女性绝食抗议者是积极的参与者，她们将自己的生活作为武器来抵抗以色列的权力矩阵和父权社会规范。与男性囚犯相比，女性人数较少，但女性在集体协调她们的开创性行动方面更为有效。通过 necroresistance（将他们的身体转变为抵抗地点）和 sumud 策略（阿拉伯语为“坚定不移”），女囚犯实行殖民当局和父权社会的双重抵抗——同时从这两种制度中夺回对自己的身体和生命的所有权。这并不需要将他们的身体塑造成男性化（或将自己去女性化），因此他们可以免受性虐待。相反，他们坚持将自己的经历女性化，并挑战将女性视为“脆弱身体”的“受害者”的性别刻板印象。对他们来说，性别不是障碍，而是一种激励因素，在这种情况下，为抗议不公正而自我牺牲远远优于忍受政治监禁的错误。他们坚持将自己的经历女性化，并挑战将女性视为“脆弱身体”的“受害者”的性别刻板印象。对他们来说，性别不是障碍，而是一种激励因素，在这种情况下，为抗议不公正而自我牺牲远远优于忍受政治监禁的错误。他们坚持将自己的经历女性化，并挑战将女性视为“脆弱身体”的“受害者”的性别刻板印象。对他们来说，性别不是障碍，而是一种激励因素，在这种情况下，为抗议不公正而自我牺牲远远优于忍受政治监禁的错误。