Romance Of Resistance

In her 2009 article, “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women,” Lila Abu-Lughod discusses the growing resistance of Bedouin women of the Libya-Egypt region to the power dynamic embedded in their culture (Abu-Lughod 41 – 42). From her work in this region, Abu-Lughod hopes that through the discovery of the attempts of women to overcome the male to female power dynamic in this region, humans can better understand power through oppression. Once the relationship between resistance to the structure of the Bedouin culture and the current power hierarchical order has been unearthed, then a historical timeline of power resistance begins to form. The timeline gives obvious proof that power resistance in the Bedouin culture is changing overtime (Abu-Lughod 53). Abu-Lughod first describes the forms of resistance of the Bedouin women to their patriarchal culture. She expresses that women keep secrets from their husbands, elders, or any other male figure, and converse with other women. This creates a sort of sisterhood that is not supposed to exist under the male dominated culture that sexually separates the men from the women (Abu-Lughod 43). She continues by citing examples the Bedouin
Bedouin women face many obstacles to overcome their male dominated culture, and while there are many outlets to resist their “way of life,” leaping over one hurdle could land a women into an abundance of other hurdles that are much more challenging to go over. Her concept proves that the Bedouin women are both tied to their religious beliefs and culture, and this has caused many women to debate if they want to challenge the system through resistance or maintain the status quo. It also shows that women interacting with other cultures, beliefs, and people create a history of resistance of the culture and demonstrate how complex it is to resist power (Abu-Lughod