‘We have a place to play, but someone else controls it’: Girls’ mobility and access to space in a Palestinian refugee camp

Abstract

From the Palestinian uprisings to the Arab Spring, politics in the Middle East is often spectacularly represented by the visual images of (male) youths battling state forces in the street. This article seeks an examination of political and cultural change in the region from a different perspective by asking how the everyday lives of young(er) people – boys and girls alike – are implicated in such transformation. In doing so, this article seeks to highlight how young people act as agents of change not only in ‘The Street’, but also in the more mundane and intimate spaces of alleyways, doorsteps and homes. Through an examination of the everyday mobility of Palestinian girls and boys in a West Bank refugee camp, this article demonstrates how questions over access to space in the camp are central to the lives of young people, as well as to broader political struggles in Palestine and the region. Girls living in Balata Camp often see restrictions to their access to space as being the result of both internal Palestinian social inequality as well as the overarching geography of occupation and displacement. Girls often advocate for greater access to space in the camp by making appeals to both the Palestinian national struggle as well as Islamic ethics of gender equality and justice. By arguing that healthy girls and boys are better able to grow and resist occupation with new and spacious places of play in the camp, these young people mark a significant departure from the politics of older generations who have steadfastly avoided outward improvements to the camp out of a desire to maintain their refugee identity and right of return. Beyond their advocacy for greater access to space, girls in Balata also use a variety of embodied tactics and strategies to evade, resist and make do with the spatial restrictions imposed upon them. Counterintuitively, many girls use their spatial restriction to their advantage by using their time at home to study. Many hope that their academic achievement will enhance both their upward and lateral mobility later in life. In contrast, although boys are viewed as having the privilege of greater mobility in the camp, many boys complain that they have no quiet places to study and that the streets they play in are often violent and crowded. With mounting family obligations and dismal employment prospects, many boys see little hope in achieving a better life through education. By looking at how girls and boys negotiate access to everyday space, this article demonstrates how children’s lives are implicated in the broader politics of public space and gender in the Middle East.