The Forgotten Comrades: Leftist Women, Palestinians, and the Jordanian Communist Party, 1936–1957

Author

Fadi H. Kafeety, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

5-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Program

Middle Eastern Studies

Advisor

Beth Baron

Subject Categories

Labor History | Oral History | Political History | Women's History

Keywords

Jordanian Communist Party, Jordanian Women's Movement

Abstract

The Middle East in the 1950s was the site of major contestation for popular support and power. In Jordan, a militant anti-imperialist movement emerged with a platform centered around expelling British forces and abrogating the Anglo-Jordanian treaty. In the struggle between monarchism and republicanism, the Jordanian Communist Party and Ba’ath Party were the catalyzing anti-imperial forces in the first decade of Jordan’s nominal independence. Despite having a militant core of feminists within their ranks, women of the Jordanian Communist Party—who were instrumental in politicizing and radicalizing the first phase of the Jordanian Women’s Movement—have been systematically erased from this critical episode in Jordan’s history. Thus, this thesis reconstructs the symbiotic relationship between the Jordanian Women’s Movement and the Jordanian Communist Party during the apex of the anti-imperial struggle against British hegemony in Jordan, shedding new light on the social and political activism of leftist women during this period.

Recommended Citation

Kafeety, Fadi H., "The Forgotten Comrades: Leftist Women, Palestinians, and the Jordanian Communist Party, 1936–1957" (2019). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3261