Degendering the Honor/Care Conflation: Palestinian Israeli University Women's Appropria‐tions of Independence

Abstract

On the basis of ethnographic research of Palestinian Israeli women at Hebrew University, I explore how cultural models of independence are used to reshape Arab conceptions of male and female selves and their communal positions. I claim that Arab models of family honor conflate honor and care differently in social expectations for men and women. Men insure family honor through care for women's bodies and women do the same through being modest and reproductive. Although the concept of independence has been critiqued as being male and Western, these women use the Western model to degender the Arab conflation of care and honor. They bring together Western cultural models of independence and Arab models of connectivity to reshape their potential as female selves to include both independent and relational features. [self, cultural models, Palestinian women, university, family honor]