Sumud, the Arabic word for “steadfastness,” is an essential characteristic of Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation and an inevitable attribute of Palestinian daily life. Sumud: Birth, Oral History, and Persisting in Palestine frames the practice of sumud through stories of Palestinian birth experiences under Israeli military rule. This ethnography calls attention to the ways women carve their space in public discourse by identifying the intersection of birth with the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian movement, state institutions, hospitals, cities, and laws. Livia Wick goes beyond exploring experiences of giving birth and birth stories in correlation to the memory and construction of social movements. Rather, she emphasizes the complexities of oral history as a methodology that challenges normative and superficial constructions of identity. Oral history is therefore identified as a cultural practice and tool for steadfastness in class- and gender-stratified society in Palestine. This book aims to map how everyday...
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November 2024
Issue Editors
Book Review|
November 01 2024
Sumud: Birth, Oral History, and Persisting in Palestine
Sumud: Birth, Oral History, and Persisting in Palestine
Livia WickSyracuse, NY
: Syracuse University Press
, 2023
200 pages. isbn9780815637882
Joy Saade
JOY SAADE is a PhD student in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Her research interests primarily focus on cultural formations of Maronite Christians in Lebanon. Contact: [email protected].
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Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (2024) 20 (3): 376–378.
Citation
Joy Saade; Sumud: Birth, Oral History, and Persisting in Palestine. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 1 November 2024; 20 (3): 376–378. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-11412117
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