Toward a Fractal Metaphor for Liberation of Palestinian Women
Author(s)
Landsman, Moshe S.
Abstract
In this article I first discuss chaos theory and detail its metaphorical relevance to social activism in a cross-cultural context. Next, I delineate developmental stages in the liberation of Palestinian women that are parallel to the liberation process of the larger Palestinian society. The liberation process is divided into four stages. I will proceed to describe each stage as it applies to Palestinian women, then to the Palestinian population under occupation or living as Israeli citizens. These parallel developments suggest a fractal metaphor because of the suspicion that the patterns discerned are embedded in each other and therefore an expansion of this metaphor upward and downward may yield some interesting insights, which are, at this stage, speculations. Next I shall point to possibilities for moving from a lower stage to the one above. Finally I shall bring examples from experiences of the last decade of work with Palestinian women.
