Hidden Conflict—Palestinian Lesbian Rights and Identities

OSI's Middle East and North Africa Initiative and the Network Women’s Program held a forum, "Hidden Conflict: Palestinian Lesbian Rights and Identities," with Rauda Morcos, co-founder and general coordinator of ASWAT.

Many women in Palestinian society are living with their identities and sexual orientations secret. When women dare to identify themselves outsides the borders of prescriptive traditional gender roles and identities, they face violent exclusion, or even worse, violence against their own bodies and property. Furthermore, as Palestinian women living inside the borders of Israel or in the Occupied Territories, there is the double discrimination of belonging to an internally displaced population without equal status. The competition between different, sometimes clashing needs and identities, puts people in a position where they are expected to prioritize one struggle over the other or to choose ideological "loyalty" in a multilayered reality. ASWAT offers a unique perspective on social change in light of the conflict between identities and political struggles.