Women, Resistance, and Mental Health in Palestine

自1948年以来，巴勒斯坦人在定居者的殖民暴力下不断遭受压迫，造成长期的心理伤害。在巴勒斯坦进行的研究发现，妇女的心理健康风险和定居者殖民暴力的后果更大，即使在遭受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经历定居者殖民暴力的妇女心理健康的一个因素，能够增强增强赋权感、目的感和尊严感。然而，参与抵抗行动也可能导致定居者进一步实施殖民暴力，例如监禁和羞辱。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军监禁，政治犯也有复杂的心理健康问题。不过，巴勒斯坦女囚犯一直抵制绝食等抗议行为，对政治抵抗在保护巴勒斯坦妇女心理健康方面的作用以及定居者对抵抗者进一步实施殖民暴力对心理健康的影响进行了研究。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，重点是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叉点的研究往往是定量的，并侧重于男性的经验，并没有有限的证据探索的相互联系的妇女的阻力，定居者的殖民暴力和心理健康在巴勒斯坦。在探索阻力，定居者的殖民暴力和心理健康之间的交叉点，本项目旨在回答以下问题：1.巴勒斯坦妇女抵抗的动机和做法是什么？2.巴勒斯坦妇女参加抵抗运动的社会后果是什么？3.巴勒斯坦妇女如何看待抵抗对其心理健康的影响？在探索这些交叉点时，我将挑战当前西方的心理健康生物医学概念，以及巴勒斯坦心理健康的中心抵抗和土著主权。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能够将政治，社会和文化现实结合起来的理解，即作为一名生活在占领下的巴勒斯坦妇女，生存和抵抗意味着什么。该项目为跨学科的知识和实践做出了原创和及时的贡献。在学术上，它有助于巴勒斯坦研究，土著研究，心理健康和性别研究领域的文学。从经验上讲，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叉点的新数据集。从理论上讲，它通过将定居者殖民主义和主权纳入当前的理解，推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，超越了巴勒斯坦的非殖民化心理健康，将其本土化。我的研究还以一种目前不存在于任何学术文献中的创新方式将土著健康人文和非殖民化交叉女权主义理论结合在一起。在方法论上，我采用的接地民族志框架将使我能够开发研究方法迭代建立在合作伙伴组织的力量。在政策方面，我的研究旨在为巴勒斯坦妇女的心理健康政策和做法提供具体信息，但也将有利于心理健康干预措施，这些干预措施将抵抗作为一般心理健康服务提供的透镜。

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.