Gender Roles and Perceptions: The Refugee Experience and Political Agency in Susan Abulhawa’s The Blue Between Sky and Water and Against the Loveless World

Abstract

The present study analyses the gendered impact of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. If conflict has a certain bearing on men, so on women. It offers an insight into the experiences of women during the conflict and beyond, the loss of dignity and independence and how they grapple with all these issues. The study explores the ways Palestinian women are shaped by perpetual patriarchy and political power struggles. It tries to capture their struggle with identity and exile and how they anchor the Palestinian narrative by highlighting the changing roles of women and their engagement in community activism.

Keywords

• conflict
• displacement
• exile
• gender
• identity
• settler-colonialism