Home Away from the Homeland: Palestinian Women and the Re-construction of Home Two Tales from Shatila

Darwish’s words echo those of millions of Palestinian refugees whose loss of a Home has led them to a lifelong struggle for the reconstruction of the concept. They resonate with thoughts of Palestinians everywhere who find themselves, after 60 years of displacement, locked in an endless search for the requisition of a Home, a process that is gradually becoming more of a symbol than a political end. Scores of academic essays have examined the right of return, the peace process and the conditions inside refugee camps in Lebanon and elsewhere; yet few have successfully dealt with the way in which Palestinian refugees have coped with the difficulties of those very conditions and actively sought to find meaning to the experience of displacement. Despite the fact that the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon remains bleak, refugees refuse to be seen merely as victims, given up to a life of hopelessness and despair. Instead, the sense of loss, resulting from the absence of a conventional nation state combined with the problems of resettlement, has led them to erect new homes in the diaspora. This article seeks — through the use of oral narratives — to give a voice to Palestinian refugee women and to highlight the human dimension of the process through which a Palestinian refugee woman seeks to construct an alternative image of a very personal Home away from the homeland. This article draws on the narratives of two remarkable women from Shatila whom I interviewed for this article