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One of the dominant trends in the evolution of the Arab women’s movements is the ongoing increase in the number of women’s NGOs dealing with aspects of women’s lives such as health, education, legal literacy, income generation, advocacy of rights, research, and so on. This steady increase in Arab women’s NGOs can be seen as a sign of decentralization of power and politics after the failure of the centralized Arab states to bring about social change and development. It is also widely viewed as a development of Arab ‘civil society’ to contain the authoritarian state, and as a healthy sign of real democracy in the region based on a ‘bottom-up’ approach.

Group Islamic weddings in the West Bank and Gaza began in the mid-1990s. They developed as a successful way to counter Israel’s policy of siege and impoverishment of Palestinian society through the economic benefits they offer and by introducing a spirit of collective joy. Yet they have become a site of conflict between the two main political rivals, Hamas and Fateh, and they also have implications for gender relations. Women are not passive observers of the conflict between the two parties and the new traditions and rituals these parties are inventing. Women are actively involved in creating more space for themselves by resisting certain Islamist initiatives, polygyny in particular. Even as they demonstrate resistance and agency, however, the political context in which Islamist and nationalist group weddings occur is unfavorable to women, as both forms lead to more segregated gender roles at their expense.

This article examines the gendering of Palestinian citizenship that occurred in the decade immediately following the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Based on extensive interviews, official documents and personal experience, it traces the evolution of women's political, social and economic actions from the early charitable societies to a popular mass women's movement. The article focuses on the secular, donor-driven proliferation of professional institutions emphasizing the externally imposed restrictions that defend the Palestinian Authority from charges of 'neo-patrimonialism', while at the same time offering a critique of the limitations of NGOs and institutions of 'civil society' existing in such a situation.