Critical consciousness from a Palestinian feminist,decolonial perspective: A collective exploratory inquiry

The devastating impacts of the Israeli occupation on the physical and mental health of the Palestinian population are, to date, well-documented (Tanous, 2022; Veronese et al., 2022). Like other experiences of settler-colonialism, the Israeli colonial regime is a persistent social and political structure (Arvin et al., 2013), and constitutes a daily experience of denial of health and well-being for Palestinians. Racial discrimination is spatial, economic, political, and legal, forcing Palestinians to live in precarious, socially and physically isolated places lacking economic, spatial, and social stability (Abdo, 2022; Amira, 2021). Colonial practices include labour exploitation, land fragmentation, settlement activities, displacements, restrictions on the movement of people, and ongoing political harassment and military intervention, making the lives of the native population uncertain and intolerable (Makkawi, 2017).

The colonial project revolves around nationalism, White supremacy, religion, and heteropatriarchy; as such, colonial violence is deeply imbricated with both racial and gender oppression (Alexander & Mohanty, 1997; Cavazzoni et al., 2022; Seikaly, 2021). However, the interlocking oppressions that characterize the colonial system, wherein settler-colonialism, nationalism, and patriarchy converge, are mostly overlooked; the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality within the colonial project are given too little attention in mainstream literature, apart from feminist inquiry (Abdo & Yuval-Davis, 1995; Macleod et al., 2020; Mohanty, 2003; Razack, 2002). Even in contemporary feminist literature, Eurocentric and essentialist analyses dominate, replicating colonialist and racist ideologies, delineating an image of women in the Global South that is eroticized, Orientalist, or as passive victims (Ali-Faisal, 2020; Mohanty, 1984). Concerning the Palestinian context, much of the literature exploring women's experiences is often imprisoned within analyses of internal patriarchy, where women are represented exclusively as objects: silent, submissive, and lacking agency (Abdo, 2022; Richter-Devroe, 2018).

To counter this approach, decolonial feminists emphasize the need for studies to investigate how women in different parts of the world—particularly the Middle East—perceive, understand, make meaning of, and resist the power-based constraints of their living environments (Grabe et al., 2014; Lykes & Moane, 2009; Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2009). Palestinian feminist literature manages to hold together aspects of oppression and misery while capturing women's resilience, power, commitment, and pleasure in life (Shalhoub-Kervorkian & Daher-Nashif, 2013; Shalhoub-Kevorkian et al., 2022; Veronese et al., 2021).

Intersectional feminist perspectives connected to decolonial approaches and indigenous feminist theories enable scholars to engage with the diverse impacts of colonization on communities and thus keep the focus on an intersectional analysis of gender, sexuality, race, indigeneity, and nation (Ali-Faisal, 2020; Arvin et al., 2013; Collins, 1990; Crenshaw, 2017; Razack, 1996). These perspectives challenge the too often adopted homogeneous approach to women's experience to consider the complex, interrelated “processes of colonialism, globalization, racism, gender oppression and other discourses as interlocking, fluid, and co-constructive of identity and experience” (Mehrotra, 2010, p. 245). Decoloniality implies and requires continuous reflection on power relations (past and present) between the Global North and South, as they have to do with the entire system of thought that constructs the Eurocentric knowledge matrix (Fine et al., 2021; Maldonado-Torres, 2007; Mignolo, 2007; Segalo & Fine, 2020). At the same time, a feminist lens prioritizes understanding the lived realities of women's experiences, with particular attention towards women's agency and the multiple forms resistance takes under settler-colonialism—and particularly within the cruelty of ongoing military and civilian occupations as in Palestine (Al Labadi, 2003; Giacaman, 2020; Sousa et al., 2019; Veronese et al., 2021).

This work is a first step towards a comprehensive exploration of how women in Palestine make sense, resist, and struggle against the colonial and patriarchal powers of their living environments. Before moving forward with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with a large number of Palestinian women from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem coming from different backgrounds (which will be a development of this work), we set out some research discussions (Herda, 1999) to explore the process (or processes) of critical consciousness for women in Palestine, a conceptual key to start engaging in the understanding of this multiple-system oppression (Freire, 2000).

After a brief introduction to the conceptual and methodological framework that we adopted, we move on to present our research-discussions and their main themes. First, though, in line with the chosen feminist and decolonial perspectives, we believe that a moment dedicated to our positioning is essential (Nagar & Geiger, 2007; Sultana, 2007). Indeed, we believe that our commitment to critical, decolonial, and transnational feminist research must include a process of self-reflection, recognizing that we are part of the myriad dimensions of power that influence our subjectivities, and so also our thinking and writing. We, the five coauthors of this paper, work and write together as scholars and activists engaged—some for longer and some for less time—in critical, feminist, and participatory research. This work was co-constructed in the encounter between the three authors located in the First World—two European and one from the United States, two women and one man—and the two authors from Palestine (one from East Jerusalem and one from the West Bank, both women). All authors are academics at public tertiary institutions (one doctorate, one postdoc, two associate professors, one full professor), and three practice as psychologists or psychotherapists in the private sector in Italy and Palestine. The group itself allowed for continuous questioning, in the writing of this work, of elitist versions of history and science, which respond to dominant interests; it also aided in the continuous attention and drive toward counternarratives. Indeed, we believe that research can be defined as feminist, critical, and psycho-politically valid only when we as researchers abandon a naive and neutral approach, respect women's choices (Shalhoub-Kevorkian et al., 2022), declare our positioning, and engage in self-reflection that allows us to question the basis of our knowledge, training, and practice (Lokot, 2021). Finally, in the knowledge that feminism opposes all forms of domination (hooks, 1984) and is intrinsically political (Macleod et al., 2020), we acknowledge and claim the choice of an unbalanced and politically positioned language within this work.

Critical consciousness (CC)

The process of critical consciousness (CC) refers to “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality” (Freire, 2000, p. 35). Developed by the Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire, the critical consciousness (Conscientizacão) process refers to the possibility of decoding everyday conditions of subjugation and discovering their relation to dominant paradigms that results in experiencing discrimination and helplessness (Bryant-Davis & Moore-Lobban, 2020). Within Black feminist thought, the idea of CC pushed women, and feminism, to move from personal experiences of oppression and liberation to deeper understandings of oppression that take into account the arrangement of society as a whole, including global dynamics of power and oppression, and that honour the project of collective voice and action (hooks, 1984).

Although still incompletely operationalized (for an insight into attempts at operationalization, see Diemer et al., 2017), CC has been conceptualized as consisting of two main dimensions: critical reflection and critical action. Critical reflection refers to the awareness of the historical and systemic ways by which oppression and inequity exist and unfold. It thus provides a reading of the world capable of including the relationships between personal contexts and social forces that limit access to opportunities and resources and thus perpetuate injustice, limiting people's agency and well-being (Jemal, 2017). The second dimension, critical action, refers to the participation in an action, individual or collective, aimed at contesting or challenging the perceived inequalities and oppressions (Campbell & MacPhail, 2002; Diemer et al., 2021). The dynamics between the components is intended to be circular, although critical reflection is always understood as a precursor of action, as people act after becoming aware of the injustices of their social conditions (Diemer et al., 2021; Jemal, 2017). Critical reflection helps to counter possible analyses related to self-blaming and other individualistic explanations of inequality by focusing on structural causes related to racial/ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, and gender inequalities in health, well-being, wealth, and other dimensions of human functioning. The correlation between a deeper understanding of discrimination and inequality and actions in terms of greater sociopolitical participation has also been highlighted by studies attempting to operationalize the construct (Diemer et al., 2021).

Several feminist studies have highlighted how CC is crucial in enhancing collective action and promoting the well-being of individuals and communities (hooks, 1984). Making connections between the personal, the collective, and the political to understand common biases related to oppression through a communion of experiences drives engagement in transformative and liberating practices (hooks, 1984; Moane, 2009). In instigating a move from the personal to the collective, and in requiring that women narrate, together, in a shared project, the facts of oppression, CC has a significant and positive direct link to feminist collective action, liberation, and well-being. Oppression is unpicked not only in people's individual lives but also in the greater arrangements of society, which mirror intersectional arrangements that are not accidental to colonialism, misogyny, and White supremacy (as well as other arrangements, e.g., ableism, agism, heteronormativity), but are indeed quite purposeful and upon which we, as scholars, ought to reflect and act (Conlin et al., 2021; Freire, 1970; hooks, 1984).

The study

To engage in the relationships between feminist critical consciousness and liberation, and their intersections with race, colonialism, and well-being, we used engaged, qualitative methods to investigate notions and processes of feminist critical consciousness (CC) held by women in Palestine. Although most of the literature on CC is based in the US, a CC lens is crucial in exploring how oppressed and marginalized people struggle and resist their social conditions and develop agency despite many structural constraints (Conlin et al., 2021; Shin et al., 2018). CC is a core concept of liberation psychology (Martín-Baró, 1994). Liberation psychology, which emerged largely in Latin America as a part of anti-imperialist, propeasant, and prodemocracy movements, recognizes the impact of the coinfluence of context, history, social position, and power on health and well-being, thus highlighting distinctive types of suffering and resistance to historical, cultural, structural, and sociopolitical oppression (Marshall & Sousa, 2016; Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2016). Liberation psychology places at its centre a critical understanding of how adverse living conditions (e.g., Zionist occupation; male domination; class, race, inequalities) have affected the well-being of people. Thus, it highlights the need to analyze the causes of suffering with a keen eye on the interdependent relationships between the intrapsychic, interpersonal, communitarian, economic, environmental, historical, and political in structuring experience, emphasizing the importance of the concepts of agency, empowerment, and transformation (Martín-Baró, 1994; Montero & Sonn, 2009).

To uncover the potential role of critical consciousness within feminist and liberation projects in Palestine, we discussed CC within 21 research conversations with Palestinian and international but Palestine-experienced feminist activists and researchers, to explore how the concept was perceived and encountered within their experiences in the Palestinian context. With the awareness that the intersections of colonial and patriarchal oppression affect both men and women, we decided to focus our attention on the self-identified women population in Palestine, which, as often happens within contexts where intersectional oppression is acutely felt, is often underrepresented within feminist literature on the one hand, and decolonial literature on the other.

The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board (No. of approval. 623) of the University of Milano-Bicocca.

Method

Participants

Feminist Palestinian researchers have long insisted upon the importance of locating and centring the meaning that women themselves make of their complex realities in Palestine (Giacaman & Johnson, 2013; Shalboub-Kevorkian, 2003). In line with this priority, we regarded Palestinian and Palestine-experienced feminist activists and researchers as key informants, KIs from now). KIs are considered expert sources of information, individuals with intimate knowledge and considerable experience (Faifua, 2014; Marshall, 1996). In line with strategies for KI interviewing, the sampling adopted is purposive (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). For the purposes of this investigation, the criterion to be considered a KI was not established based on a sense of expertise or expert status (Lokot, 2021), but rather based on the KI long-term commitments to and interest in feminist action in Palestine. A list of possible participants was outlined subsequently to an extensive literature review and thorough knowledge of the research team members. In addition, at the end of each interview, participants were asked if they would recommend a KI to contact, following a snowball ethnographic approach. Concerning the inclusion criteria, we referred to four of five characteristics of KIs highlighted by Tremblay (1982): a role in the community, knowledge, willingness, and communicability. Tremblay's fifth characteristic, impartiality, was not included because we deemed it unfit for the study purposes, our feminist qualitative framework, and the deeply and necessarily political nature of our investigation. Feminist research emphasizes the importance of considering the researcher's positionality, highlighting how it must be recognized and acknowledged as always present (Alexander & Mohanty, 1997). ¹

KIs were identified until the research team concluded that a point of saturation was achieved, so additional material did not appear to add any new information or insight. Our sample targeted 21 participants, 25 to 65 years old, Palestinian and international (seven international, with research work dedicated to Palestine), and from diverse mental health and human rights backgrounds. All of the interviewees were women who identified as feminists.

Instruments and procedures

The research team constructed guiding questions designed to explore the dimensions of CC, which could be modified throughout the data collection period. Attendees were invited to participate via email. They were given an information sheet on the nature of the project and asked for consent to participate. Interviews were conducted in English using a virtual platform to allow face-to-face interaction; they lasted between 35 and 75 minutes, and following consent, they were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Each interviewee was also recontacted at the end of writing so that they could express their opinion.

A qualitative and critical approach was used to guide this study as the best way to conduct an in-depth examination of KI interviewees’ opinions, experiences, and perspectives (Haverkamp & Young, 2007; Marshall, 1996). The transcripts were analyzed independently by two researchers, and regularly discussed with the entire research team. All transcripts were analyzed through thematic analysis, proceeding through the six stages outlined by Clarke and Braun (2013). Differences in individual coding were resolved through discussion until a consensus was reached. NVivo 12 qualitative software was used to facilitate data management (Dhakal, 2022).

Findings

Thematic analysis led to the delineation of characteristics of the two CC process dimensions (critical reflection and the particulars of critical action) in Palestine, particularly concerning Palestinian women, and to a more general discussion of the liberating power of the CC process itself (critical consciousness: Is it a liberatory practice?). In line with the qualitative approach, our emphasis in our presentation of themes is on describing the spectrum of findings ascertained through analysis, not on an average and/or representativeness of the opinions held (Marshall, 1996).

Critical consciousness: Towards a feminist Palestinian construct

All respondents embraced the importance of the concept of CC, terming it a “very Palestinian construct.” CC was described as a way to link personal experience to the social structures and context in which people live. According to our analysis, respondents noted that, within CC, women collectively come to recognize the patterns of oppression, poverty, violence, and political and gender exclusion of the surrounding context, and together outline the basis for envisioning changes. This possibility has been outlined as crucial in Palestine since it represents a way in which Palestinians counter the attempts at systematic erasure of their identity, history, and agency: “Palestinians are aware that the system is about erasing them. Only by raising consciousness people can survive atrocities” (KI-16). CC was highlighted as a critical factor in enabling, accelerating, and directing the processes of struggle and resistance against the oppressive context. Hence, CC was described as the basis of any act of resistance and refusal: “Israel's work is to invade the mind, the consciousness. It is part of the enslaving. Agency and refusal come from number one: knowing, knowing what goes on” (KI-16). In line with literature on the topic, our analysis demonstrates the ways that knowing, remembering, and understanding form the basis of possibility of resistance: a way to exercise individual and collective agency, and cultivate a refusal to give in to oppression; as such, this refusal enables new ways of thinking about power, authority, and, ultimately, collective liberation (Sheehi & Sheehi, 2020).

Critical reflection

In considering CC, the importance of critical reflection came to the fore: interviewees described the process of critical reflection as a fundamental step to identifying dimensions of oppression and discrimination present in everyday life, aiding individuals and collectives in recognizing where they currently stand, and therefore where to start in the project of resistance. Aligning with broader literature on critical reflection as a visionary and imaginative project (Freire, 1970), identifying and naming oppressions is needed in order to imagine how to counter them, and to imagine something new and different: “How do you imagine doing something different if you cannot even imagine it? How would it be possible to effect change if you are not able to talk about it?” (KI-19). Tracing, and thus naming, the different interlocking systems of oppression within which women in Palestine move, was defined as crucial to recognize and direct spaces for thought and action. Naming these systems of oppression was also the start of most of our interviews: the settler-colonial regime, the economic stranglehold, and the sociopatriarchal violence.

The settler-colonial regime: Racialized politics of injustice and oppression

This theme, which often overlaid the remainder of each conversation, was one that participants held as an organizing theme of the rest of their narratives. To them, the political situation, and, specifically, the ongoing settler-colonial regime was central: everything is connected to the occupation. The political climate is above everything, conditioning and affecting the conditions under which the lives of Palestinians are experienced, impacting both daily life and the long-term survival of the collective. Indeed, the occupation shows its power through devastation of economic infrastructure, mass restrictions on employment and on mobility, loss of lands, militarization of daily life, and widespread human rights violations (Veronese et al., 2022). While men suffer specifically from Israeli violence (in terms of imprisonment, deaths, beatings, and humiliation), our interviews elucidated how the occupation creates visible and invisible wounds for women, undermining their lives, freedoms, and rights in several specific respects.

First, the concern for women's safety from soldiers’ violence limits their ability to move and their opportunities to travel for study or work. It has been studied how militarization targets women, women's bodies, and women's physical experiences of place by placing them under constant threat of abuse and violence, thus limiting their ability to move freely (Sousa et al., 2019); “My mother was supposed to have her education in West Bank, an excellent university. Because of the occupation and the Israeli soldiers abusing women, harassing them, her family did not feel safe to send her” (KI-5).

Second, the suffering associated with the loss of jobs, homes, and any security associated with life, and the constant humiliation received increase frustration and anger that are likely to be recirculated in the community, as illustrated in this quote: “[T]he political loss, the colonization, the daily humiliation—it means more oppression for the women through patriarchy” (KI-12). Our participants noted that the more men have suffered humiliation and violence, the more women can become a place for venting feelings of inferiority, helplessness, and anger.

Economics and sociopatriarchal oppression in Palestine: Intersectionality

The economic stranglehold. Participants’ narratives, reminding us of the necessary intersectional lens, highlighted how colonial violence, gender, and class are not distinct realms of experience but operate in continuous relationships with each other. Closely linked to the colonial occupation, the economic strangulation was mentioned as severely shaping women's opportunities for action. In the West Bank and particularly in Gaza, the level of unemployment is very high, and there is very little labour supply. The blockade imposed by Israel on the Strip prevents the export of many products, which do not survive the local market (products would need to be exported, but export is prevented by the blockade). This leads to many women being unable to be economically self-sufficient and to provide for their families, generating feelings of powerlessness and helplessness: “Economic difficulties are also impacting the living conditions and the willingness to resist” (KI-20). From another perspective, some respondents highlighted how the economic constraints on families have also caused a positive outcome. More and more families need two incomes to meet living costs and, where possible, more women are working: “Women's status and power are already shifting, thanks to the economy, which is demanding women to go to work. The family needs a second income” (KI-8).

Sociopatriarchal oppression. All interviewees mentioned the difference in power and rights between men and women in Palestine, discussing the inequalities and discrimination present in society. Social norms were highlighted as severely limiting women's access to resources and opportunities: “People look at me without taking me seriously because I am a woman. I am a doctor, but they want a male doctor. This affects my work, my possibility to improve, and my income too” (KI-4).

Many rules were listed that dictate the rights and appropriate behaviour concerning gender, in particular how a woman should be raised and act. Problematic cases of discrimination were highlighted in Gaza, where respondents stressed the difficulty of relating to a strongly patriarchal society:

Women have to disappear from public life and the labour market. They are expected to be in the house and take up small space. Around 21% of women are married before 18, while around 30% in Gaza have suffered from at least one kind of violence. (KI-15)

Gender-based violence in Gaza and the West Bank was discussed, and many situations were described where gender violence was difficult to counter because of social norms or the lack of laws due to the absence of a functioning parliament. This type of situations highlight why awareness of the political, structural, spatial, geographical, and patriarchal constraints surrounding one's life is crucial.

In line with decolonial feminist discourse, the interviewees strongly emphasized the importance of contextualizing violence; that is, they insisted, and rightly so, that interpersonal violence be understood in conjunction with the violence of the colonial project—as a form of what Freire (1970) termed “horizontal violence,” and which has also been described as lateral violence: “aggression within systemically exploited groups … widely recognized as a product of internalized historical and contemporary oppression” (Jaber et al., 2022, p. 1). In line with this framework, our analysis pointed to the perspective among our participants that the long-term Israeli settler-colonization of Palestine has a profound impact on Palestinian society and on how Palestinian society deals with women:

Women are oppressed by gender in Palestine, but it is crucial to understand that this is not cultural but an effect. An impact or the long-term impact of the occupation and the kinds of manufacturing it has done within society. So when young women face potential harassment at the checkpoints when they go to university, that motivates the more conservative groups in society to restrict women's freedoms. (KI-13)

Like other colonial regimes, the Israeli regime manipulates and reinforces patriarchal forces within the colonized society. Indeed, a growing body of research documents how patriarchy works in concert with settler-colonialism to the detriment of the female population (Gibbs et al., 2021; Rudd, 2001; Shalhoub-Kevorkian et al., 2022). Therefore, the challenge discussed by the interviewees is not only to analyze the structures of oppression but also to consider the political and social contexts that activate, encourage, and mediate those oppressions. Thus, placing this violence exclusively within the Palestinian patriarchal society is not only a misunderstanding but also does not help in building the right tools to counter it.

We must be careful. Gender violence is also a selling product . . . The West would love to tell itself: “I am helping these women whom their men are killing”; in this way, they can say that “it is not us, the Westerners nor Israel to blame, but the patriarchy of the Palestinians.” (KI-20)

The particulars of critical action

We move now to the second core element of critical consciousness: action. The women we interviewed highlighted dimensions of critical action, and how this process related to processes of liberation, both individual and collective.

At first, our analysis of notions of critical action pointed to similarities with the concept of agency, which is well known within feminist literature. For instance, one participant stated: “I understand both notions as describing the fact that people are agentic, able to exert their agency through critical action” (KI-2). It has been difficult to trace a clear difference between the two concepts, with the exception perhaps that the concept of critical action carried with it its reflexive precursor. Our analysis and interpretation helped to establish two points of differentiation between agency and critical action. First, our material highlighted the roles of awareness and reflection: “[B]eing aware of your surroundings and being conscious about what oppresses you, direct your action. Being critical about the world around you, sustains, anticipates your action” (KI-16). If agency can also be thought of as a mere action and, in its extreme shape, an unreflective action—we can think of Hoggett's (2001) unreflective agency, resembling what we might call an acting out, almost agency as an act “out of terror” (Thompson, 2019, p. 97), and thus an act (an action) devoid of thought (see Cavazzoni et al., 2023)—the action imagined in the process of CC centres on reflection in order to become a critical action. “I think the difference is related to the thinking behind the action, what motivates it. Understanding what motivates people, what supports their actions, this is central” (KI-12).

Second, our analysis and interpretation within our CC theoretical framework helped delineate how much the construct of agency might further a strongly Western and individualistic connotation, such that an unthinking application of agency in Palestine may increase the risk of reifying the Western feminist gaze (Mohanty, 1984), “unreflectively validating it in proving that Eastern women have agency too” (Abu-Lughod et al., 2001, p. 105). One participant stated:

We are not raised as individuals. We are raised as people with rights and responsibilities towards family and community. This issue of agency as making choices is not an individual choice but is the subject of discussions and relations with others. (KI-2)

Indeed, the concept of critical action perhaps could include a more communal connotation, where a “larger conceptualization of the self, situated within a collective” (KI-2) is also considered. In contrast, the construct of agency seems to be understood by our participants as closely linked to a Western (and male) context; from the Palestinian culture perspective, as in the feminist ethos, goals should be driven by family or community desires or with a commitment to a more collective liberation.

While our analysis pointed to these intriguing distinctions, some respondents considered excessive reflection on words per se to be antithetical to the liberatory project, with the perception of “getting lost within a discussion of terms, thus risking missing the meaning of the concept itself” (KI-13). Indeed, while our study revealed important dimensions of the constructs related to the critical action/agency linguistic debate, women's critical actions were described by participants in terms of everyday actions of resistance and resilience against the various existing oppressions (e.g., Zionist occupation, local political pressure, patriarchal pressure): “Here in Palestine it means that every day you resist and endure. You don’t passively adjust to the situation; you endure, you take your shit, you also resist” (KI-2).

Critical actions in Palestine were described as inherently formed, constructed, and reinforced in their relations to the occupying reality. Indeed, a clear example of (the) critical action driven by a profound and transgenerational understanding of the oppressive reality was represented by participants through the Palestinian concept of sumud, translated into English as steadfastness (Jabr, 2021; Tawil-Souri, 2009). Sumud refers to the:

refusal against the ongoing violence and suppression of Palestinians, the dispossession of land, and the idea of Palestine insists on the need to build, produce, intervene, educate, and mobilize counter powers for decolonization against the brutality of the settler colonial regime of erasure. (Shalhoub-Kevorkian et al., 2022, p. 205)

Palestinians’ critical action (or agency), as expressed in the term of sumud, was delineated both in terms of collective and creative force: “it talks about resistance through education, work, sociopolitical actions, and struggle” (KI-3), and in those psychological acts of “enabling and reaffirming rejection of oppression and reaffirmation of one's existence” (KI-16). Moreover, participants highlighted how “resistance” does not only mean political or striking actions, but how it is hidden within the most common everyday acts—“Revolutionary [actions] and resistance is in every action and gesture that allows people to improve their existence, dignity, and well-being” (KI-14)—allowing people to improve their existence, quality of life, dignity, and well-being. As in the literature concerning the beneficial aspects of critical action (Conlin et al., 2021), the connotation of sumud also has healing facets, fostering collective action and, thus, life satisfaction and well-being.

Critical consciousness: Is it a liberatory practice?

A lively debate developed in our interviews around these thoughts: Is the process of CC a practice that always helps, or can it be “ethically problematic” (KI-6) in specific contexts? Does critical reflection always lead to a thought or action with a liberatory nature, or can ithave the reverse result? May it be less dangerous and more realistic to stay within it (oppressive situation) and find a way to adapt? If there is nothing you can do to contrast and change the situation around you, is not understanding only likely to increase frustration and paralyze action?

If you help people to “be enlightened” to see their oppression, they are still in it. There is nothing you can do to change it; very little they can do to change it in their lifetime. I wonder, is that a good thing or not? (KI-6)

The issue being discussed concerns the possibility of feeling immobilized when there are too many structures of oppression. If a person has no material, political, or economic resources, does it make sense to empower their CC? “So you can have all the CC in the world; if you do not have the material bargaining power, the actual means to push back, what does it help you?” (KI-13).

The questions presented above sparked a substantial discussion, drawing the attention of some participants to an Arabic proverb: “el ein basira, w el eid qasira” (العين بصيرة، واليد قصيرة), meaning “I am insightful, but my arms are too short,” which was understood in a wide variety of ways. On the one hand, it was outlined through the aforementioned issues: being overly aware and informed, without venues for creative action and resistance, can make people “miserable, powerless, and hopeless” (KI-9). On the other hand, the proverb was discussed in dynamic terms and not to be understood as a verdict: “My arms might be short, but I am not in despair. If we do not have CC, we would be in despair about the lack of choice” (KI-18). From this perspective, the idea that a greater awareness of oppressive power structures can increase feelings of helplessness was hotly contested. In contrast, the beneficial and protective aspect of a CC process was highlighted, especially in oppressive contexts where the possibilities for change seem slim to the bone: “[K]nowing that you have the right to your inheritance does not mean that you will have this right. But you know, you do not feel worthless, is your society that does that” (KI-15). In addition to diminishing feelings of helplessness, possessing CC has been outlined as a pivotal armour to protect oneself from feelings of self-blame. A participant outlined this process very clearly:

Once, I travelled to Germany. I asked myself, why do I have no energy? Am I lazy? Am I less brilliant? It is better to be aware of why you are tired. If we do not, we are blaming ourselves. I am tired because I am overwhelmed with other thoughts. Will I have electricity tomorrow? How many hours? Will there be water in the container? Will I be able to sleep tonight with these drones? We must resist, know all the violations we are subjected to, and not just blame ourselves. (KI-3)

Discussion

This work aimed to generate and delineate a situated, living, and contemporary understanding of the concept of CC and its relevance among women living within settler-colonial violence in Palestine. Aware that women are not a monolithic block (Patai, 1994), we explored this construct within a dialogue with researchers and activists who shared their own experiences and those of the women with whom they work and live. From these discussions, we grasped essential insights that enable us to understand and rethink Palestinian women's experiences of oppression and struggle for resistance.

First, the concept of CC was discussed as central and crucial to all interviewees’ clinical, research, and activist work. In a country with such a long and violent colonial history, CC seems to fit well, just as the concept of sumud epitomizes the idea of critical and collective action in its most multifaceted forms. The interviewees outlined the importance of considering various systems of inequality, oppression, and discrimination when we focus on Palestinian women, as they reinforce each other, creating substantial webs of subjugation within which women navigate their lives. As delineated in the interviews, the Israeli colonial regime precedes, produces, and feeds multiple forms of oppression; weakens institutions; and suffocates the economy, leading to unemployment and illegal work. Moreover, it adversely affects the legal apparatus, often at the expense of women (Abdo, 2022; Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2009). Thus, participants’ voices stressed how women's practices of existence and resistance cannot be explored without including concerns related to the intersections between Israeli violence and other sources of oppression. However, the risks of culturalizing and Orientalizing the roots of, and struggles against, gender discrimination are cogent (Ali-Faisal, 2020; Arvin et al., 2013; Mohanty, 2003). The discourse of colonized culture as uncivilized and prone to gender discrimination and violence underestimates the interrelation and interchangeability between politics of inferiorization, cognitive–emotional dispossession, and cultural norms (Rudd, 2001; Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2009). On the other hand, scrutinizing forms of gendered oppression makes the recognition of their roots available and hypothesizes interventions to undermine them. The analytic tool of “interlocking forms of oppression”—at the heart of the transnational feminist reflection (Collins, 1990; Razack, 1996)—comes to aid in avoiding the risk of focusing on gender as an isolated path of oppression experiences. The ongoing Israeli military occupation and the subsequent political violence have increased the economic hardship of the population and reinvigorated the power of the existing patriarchal hegemonic system.

Second, CC processes are relevant because they provide shielding from both political and psychological facets of oppression. The first emerges within the experience of colonial violence, the obstacles and barriers that prevent women from accessing opportunities, rights, and well-being. The second facet, as illustrated in the last quote, is evidenced by the risk that the oppressed have of internalizing an inferiorized perception of themselves (of their gender, ethnicity, or community) as being deprived and blamed for the absence of resources and wealth (Luque-Ribelles et al., 2017). The capitalistic colonial force carries with it biopolitical, necropolitical, and psychic oppression that, through psychological warfare, shows itself through an embodied affective demolition and domination (Al Issa & Beck, 2021; Fanon, 1967; Shalhoub-Kevorkian et al., 2022). Coloniality thus also shapes the psychic life of the colonized population in a continuous violent attempt to sear their consciousness (Duqqah, 2010; Shalhoub-Kevorkian et al., 2022).

Similarly, men and women internalize, and then reproduce, normative behaviours and power relations, also framed by patriarchy, where normative femininity becomes subordinate to hegemonic masculinity. Therefore, our research-conversations reveal how the awareness of these structures is crucial to access an initial process of connecting personal experiences of oppression/dispossession with the power structures in which all individuals are enmeshed. Acknowledging patterns of oppression, violence, political exclusion, and gender discrimination helps diminish these feelings of powerlessness and self-blame, decreases their reproduction, and lays the groundwork for hypothesizing change.

Conclusion

The present study aimed to delve into the concept of critical consciousness in Palestine, highlighting the links between individuals’ psychological suffering and the social, economic, and political contexts in which their lives are embedded. Combining liberation psychology with a feminist perspective allowed us to hold together and examine the antecedents and determinants of suffering with a keen eye on the interdependent relationships between intrapsychic, interpersonal, collective, economic, environmental, historical, and political factors in shaping Palestinian women's experience of social suffering and practices of liberation. From our conversations, we explored how the concept of CC was perceived and encountered in the Palestinian context, and discussed its liberating power and impact on Palestinian women's resistance and well-being within contexts of oppression and settler-colonialism.

To conclude, some critical reflections on our work need to be discussed. The first is attributable to the choice of exploring Palestinian women's CC through the voices of a few key informants and through individual interviews. Indeed, the relatively small number of practitioners and researchers interviewed does not allow us to transfer our findings to other contexts. Plus, KIs' interviews can be questioned. Key informants in relation to whom? Where are the perspectives of “ordinary” community members? (Lokot, 2021). Ultimately, given our Freireian emphasis on collective dialogue, collective meetings where we could discuss together and collectively explore the questions and concerns raised in individual discussions would have been more enriching. This work is intended to be only the first step of a more expanded and inclusive study, where we will target groups of (extra)ordinary Palestinian women through both in-depth interviews and collective discussions. However, we thought this initial exploratory part was significant to understand how much the concept of CC itself was understood and delineated by researchers and activists from Palestine, or whose work takes place in Palestine. In relation to the choice of selecting both Palestinian and international KIs, this may also reflect our formation as a group of Palestinian and non-Palestinian researchers with common goals and sharing the idea that a mixed group allows for more points of view and perspectives. Finally, concerning our choice to interview only female practitioners or activists, we felt that it was necessary—in a world where “men's monopoly of authorized knowledge leads to women's voices and perspectives being muted” (Letherby, 2003, p. 32)—to bring women's experiences and perspectives to the fore as a measure to change narratives (Lokot, 2021; Narayan, 2004).