A Gendered Return: Reflections of a Bint Qawiyyeh bila Latafa (Strong-Willed Girl without Gentleness)

I was born in Jerusalem, where my ancestors planted roots centuries ago. My family is from Shuʾfat, a village north of the Old City, where I spent the first few years of my life. My connection to Jerusalem has always been strong, even when my father moved our family to the United States to avoid the political problems of the region. He also did not want us to experience the poverty he endured as a child in post-Nakba Jerusalem, then under Jordan’s jurisdiction. We left Palestine on a snowy, cold day at the end of 1987, just as the first intifada was brewing. In the United States, Palestine was always present in our new home. My parents spoke only Arabic at home, my father told us of his adventures in Jerusalem growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, my mother cooked the dishes she grew up with (i.e., makloobeh,...