Through adopting a focus on the gendered micro-politics of lived realities, this paper investigates the perpetuation of political stasis in the context of Israel-Palestine. Following Lauren Berlant’s (2007) delineation of ‘ordinary life’ wherein specific life-worlds emerge through affective attachments, the paper explores how the creation and maintenance of ‘small worlds’ may preclude action on larger political scales including the national level. In this, gender functions as a diagnostic category, making visible both the centrality of the Jewish Israeli family to micro-environments and the differential interests of individuals who pursue normalcy within these realms. Importantly, these ‘small worlds’ reflect diverse value systems and understandings of politics specific to the ethnic, religious, economic, and geographic orientations of the Jewish Israelis invested in their construction. These distinct spheres of immediate influence converge in the nexus of militarism, nationalism, and social regulation, collectively perpetuating the status quo even as ideals of justice and equality are pursued in more intimate dimensions. Based upon one year of ethnographic research in Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem, this paper examines the links between micro and macro scales, revealing how active distancing from the political realities of military occupation may result in a new practice of domination: the production and preservation of normalcy. While revealing specific conditions of constraint and contours of possibility, an intersectional approach to gender emphasises how the pursuit of ordinary life engages multiple relations of power, framing Jewish Israeli decisions around political engagement and action. Berlant, L. (2007) ‘Nearly Utopian, Nearly Normal: Post-Fordist Affect in La Promesse and Rosetta’, Public Culture Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 273-301.

This paper explores both the potentials and limitations of transnational feminist activism in the Iranian context, between home and diasporas, by focusing on the California-branch of the One Million Signatures Campaign for Gender Equality (OMSC). In doing so, I evaluate the California-branch of the OMSC in and of itself, because the hermeneutics lies in the particular relation between the text (the aims of the OMSC) and the context of activism. Although the core aim of the OMSC – to bring about a bottom-up change to the discriminatory laws of the Islamic Republic – remains for all branches, the plethora of literature on the OMSC assumes that the branches are merely extensions to “the centre”. Conversely, I argue that, despite the “sameness” of their aims in various cities of Iran and its diasporas, the OMSC branches do not have universal meaning and impact. My research demonstrates that branches are context-specific “events” (Alcoff, 1991) and must be evaluated considering the historical discursive context, location of speakers and audience, as well as the material conditions that define their particular meaning and impact. Along with several online, Iran-related feminist initiatives since 2009, this study is based on extensive off-line research – interviews, focus groups, and joint collaboration – with Tehran-based members of the women’s movement (2008) and active members of California-branch of the OMSC (2010). Starting with a brief background of the OMSC, I will then focus on the California-branch’s activities in the Iranian community of Southern California. In my critical analysis of their strategies, particular attention is paid to tensions between the politics and discourses around race – national, ethnic, and/or religious – and those around gender. What emerges is the mounting need for the transnational Iranian women’s movement to adopt an intersectional analysis of power structures that is holistic in its approach. In other words, a set of politics that pays attention to the needs of the particular without loosing sight of “transnational connectivities” (Grewal, 2005) between the locales that shape the global, and even define the universal; a transnational feminist politics that seeks alliances across borders by contextualising gender as a category that intersects with other shifting categories of difference. Alcoff, L. (1991) The problem of speaking for others. Cultural critique, 5-32. Grewal, I. (2005) Transnational America: feminisms, diasporas, neoliberalisms. Duke University Press Books, London.

The proposed paper aims to critically engage with the notions of women’s empowerment and social change as understood and operationalized by local and international organizations working in Jordan. It is motivated by the gap between feminist theory and institutional practices, and specifically by the tension between feminist values, as linked by Kabeer to equality and transformation (Kabeer, 2005), and the ideological framework of neoliberal economics. Empowerment projects in the Middle East, and particularly in Jordan, tend to be shaped by neoliberal political and economic policy concerns. These frequently translate into simply increasing numbers of women or box ticking solutions that fail to fully consider the transformative aim of empowerment itself. But how does women’s empowerment as conceptualized by international institutions translate to the local level? How do local organizations perceive and operationalize women’s empowerment? And how do Jordanian women experience the various programs that are implemented? Focusing on two international and three local Jordanian women’s organizations, I will critically discuss how different understandings of the notions of empowerment and gender lead to diverse activities and outcomes, and may even contribute to maintaining the status quo rather than leading to social change. Theoretically, my paper will also engage with more recent feminist theories which emphasize intersectionality as key to understanding the various ways gender-based hierarchies operate through other systems of inequality based on class, ethnicity, religion etc., and how certain institutions are transnational in their methods but not in their beliefs (Al-Ali and Pratt, 2009). Furthermore it will reveal how development practices in Jordan are still relatively untouched by theoretical shifts and tend to employ problematic conceptualizations of gender, if not ignoring the concept altogether. I will be drawing on ethnographic fieldwork that I conducted in Jordan over a period of eight months in 2010 and 2011. Focusing on the role and activities of selected organizations in increasing women’s political participation during the 2010 Parliamentary Elections, I will present the findings from interviews conducted with practitioners and with women participating in selected programs. Al-Ali, N. and Pratt, N., 2009. What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq. California, US: University of California Press. Kabeer, N., 2005. ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: a critical analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal’. Gender and Development, 13 (1), 13-24.