Women, Resistance, and Mental Health in Palestine

自1948年以来，面对定居者的殖民暴力，巴勒斯坦人经历了持续的压迫，造成长期的心理伤害。来自巴勒斯坦的研究发现，定居者殖民暴力对妇女的心理健康风险和后果更大，即使在接触暴力的程度没有显著差异的情况下。政治和公民参与已被确定为保护遭受定居者殖民暴力的妇女的心理健康的一个因素，从而增强赋权、目标和尊严的感觉。然而，从事抵抗行动也可能导致定居者进一步实施殖民暴力，例如通过监禁和羞辱。自1967年以来，约有10 000名巴勒斯坦妇女因参与抵抗活动而被以色列占领监禁，政治犯有复杂的精神健康问题。然而，巴勒斯坦女性囚犯一直在抵抗绝食等抗议行为。有研究表明，政治抵抗在保护巴勒斯坦妇女的精神健康方面可以发挥作用，以及进一步对抵抗者实施定居者殖民暴力对精神健康的影响。然而，巴勒斯坦的学术讨论和心理健康政策和实践仍然侧重于确定和核实冲突对心理健康的影响，侧重于与创伤有关的心理健康问题，而不是将抵抗纳入心理健康政策和实践。探索心理健康和政治监禁之间的交集的研究往往是定量的，集中在男性经历上，并且没有有限的证据探索妇女抵抗、定居者殖民暴力和巴勒斯坦心理健康之间的相互联系。在探索抵抗、定居者殖民暴力和心理健康之间的交集时，这个项目旨在回答以下问题：1.巴勒斯坦妇女抵抗的动机和实践是什么？2.巴勒斯坦妇女参与抵抗的社会后果是什么？3.巴勒斯坦妇女如何看待抵抗影响她们的心理健康？在探索这些交叉时，我将挑战目前西方的、生物医学的心理健康观念，以及巴勒斯坦心理健康中的中间抵抗和土著主权。因此，该项目将进一步加深我们对心理健康政策和实践如何纳入作为巴勒斯坦妇女生活在占领下的生存和抵制意味着什么的政治、社会和文化现实的理解。该项目对跨多学科的知识和实践做出了独到和及时的贡献。在学术上，它对巴勒斯坦研究、土著研究、心理健康和性别研究领域的文学做出了贡献。在经验上，它创建了一个关于妇女抵抗、定居者殖民暴力和心理健康的交集的新数据集。从理论上讲，它通过将殖民者殖民主义和主权纳入当前的理解，促进了对心理健康的批判性思考。更具体地说，我的研究采用了土著健康人文框架，该框架超越了巴勒斯坦精神健康的去殖民化，而是将其本土化。我的研究还以一种创新的方式将土著健康人文科学和非殖民主义的交叉女权主义理论结合在一起，这是目前任何学术文献都不存在的。在方法上，我正在采用的扎根的民族志框架将使我能够在合作组织的力量的基础上反复开发研究方法。在政策方面，我的研究旨在特别为巴勒斯坦妇女的心理健康政策和实践提供信息，但也将有利于将抵抗作为一般心理健康服务提供的镜头的心理健康干预措施。

Since 1948, Palestinians have experienced ongoing oppression in the face of settler colonial violence resulting in long-term psychological harm. Studies from Palestine have found that the mental health risks and consequences of settler colonial violence are greater for women, even when there is no significant difference in the level of exposure to violence. Political and civic engagement has been identified as a protective factor for the mental health of women experiencing settler colonial violence, enabling increased feelings of empowerment, purpose and dignity. However, engaging in acts of resistance can also result in further perpetration of settler colonial violence, such as through imprisonment and humiliation. Since 1967, around 10,000 Palestinian women have been imprisoned by the Israeli occupation for their involvement in resistance activities and political prisoners present with complex mental health problems. Nevertheless, Palestinian women prisoners have been resisting acts of protest such as hunger strikes.There is research on the role political resistance can play in protecting the mental health of Palestinian women and the mental health implications of perpetrating further settler colonial violence against those who resist. However, academic discourse and mental health policy and practice in Palestine remains focused on determining and verifying the effects of conflict on mental health by focusing on trauma-related mental health problems as opposed to integrating resistance in mental health policy and practice. Research exploring the intersection between mental health and political imprisonment tends to be quantitative and focus on male experiences, and there is no limited evidence exploring the interconnectedness of of women's resistance, settler colonial violence, and mental health in Palestine.In exploring the intersections between resistance, settler colonial violence, and mental health, this project aims to answer the following questions:1. What are the motivations for and practices of resistance for Palestinian women?2. What are the social consequences of engaging in resistance for Palestinian women?3. How do Palestinian women perceive resistance to affect their mental health?In exploring these intersections, I will challenge current western, biomedical notions of mental health, and centre resistance and Indigenous sovereignty in Palestinian mental health. This project will thus further our understanding of how mental health policy and practice can incorporate the political, social, and cultural realities of what it means to exist and resist as a Palestinian woman living under occupation.This project makes an original and timely contribution to knowledge and practice across multiple disciplines. Academically, it contributes to literature in the fields of Palestine studies, Indigenous studies, mental health, and gender studies. Empirically, it creates a new dataset on the intersections of women's resistance, settler colonial violence, and mental health. Theoretically, it advances critical thinking on mental health by incorporating settler colonialism and sovereignty into current understandings. More specifically, my research adopts an Indigenous health humanities framework which moves beyond decolonising mental health in Palestine to Indigenising it. My research also brings together Indigenous health humanities and decolonial intersectional feminist theory in an innovative way that does not currently exist in any academic literature. Methodologically, the grounded ethnographic framing that I am adopting will enable me to develop research methods iteratively building on the strength of the partner organisations. In policy terms, my research is intended to inform mental health policy and practice for Palestinian women specifically but will also benefit mental health interventions that adopt resistance as a lens for mental health service delivery generally.