Jamileh Abu-Duhou Brings Together Voices of Abused Palestinian Women

Lena, an Australian Palestinian young woman, was caught in a cultural web of honor and shame, imprisoned in a violent marriage. When she tried to escape, she suffered further abuse by the legal system.

In “Honour and Shame: Breaking the Silence” (published by Xlibris AU in July 2013), author Jamileh Abu-Duhou narrates the true record of violence that has so permeated Palestinian society that it has put even the Palestinian hearth in peril. It is a situation that echoes extinction or desperate violence, and Abu-Duhou calls for every woman activist throughout the world in the outcry to save her people from such shame.

Lena is just one voice in this collection of first-person narrations of violence against women in Palestinian homes. A snippet form the book presents Lena’s rationalization of her husband’s behavior:
“The thought of being abused scared me. I said to myself, ‘No, I am not abused. Sami is just in a bad mood. He drank too much which affected his ability to perform and that must have upset him, thereby injuring his manhood. (But) from that day on, slapping became a ritual and routine for him. I was slapped for lots or no sugar in the coffee, the breakfast ten seconds late or two seconds earlier…’”

These women’s voices join the general outcry on Palestinian victimization. Palestinian women are being victimized at will both by the ongoing violent conflict their people have been mired in since partition and at the hands of their husbands. “Honour and Shame” is a book with an urgent need to come out and be read not just by the respective international authorities or women’s groups, but also by everyone with a conscience. It is a very urgent hour for Palestinian women as Abu-Duhou illustrates with her book.

To purchase and know more about the book, readers can visit https://www.amazon.com/Honour-Shame-Breaking-Jamileh-Abu-Duhou/dp/1483664627.

“Honour and Shame: Breaking the Silence”
By Jamileh Abu-Duhou
Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 157 pages | ISBN 9781483664620
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 157 pages | ISBN 9781483664613
E-Book | 157 pages | ISBN 9781483664637
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author
Jamileh Abu-Duhou was born at the occupied Palestinian territories and educated in the United Kingdom and Australia. A medical anthropologist and a women’s rights activist, her published work includes “Domestic Violence in the Palestinian Context: Prevalence and Causes” (in Arabic), “Motherhood as a Script for Nationhood’ in Reproduction, Childbearing” and “Motherhood: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Her latest book is titled “Giving voice to the Voiceless: Gender based violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”