La thawra et les femmes

Al thawra, la Révolution, comme plusieurs interlocutrices la qualifient, est en fait le projet

nationaliste palestinien. Avant même l’arrivée de l’OLP, un vent d’espoir peut être perçu dans les récits de certaines femmes lorsqu’elles évoquent ce projet : « People at the

beginning looked at each other and would say: 'Ah! It’s a message from God! They came to help us!' » (Noura, 50 ans)

Pour bien des Palestiniennes, ce projet amène changement et espoir. La présence de la centrale palestinienne au Liban marque l’amélioration des conditions de vie des réfugiés palestiniens. Ceci se manifeste particulièrement auprès des femmes alors que certaines de ces améliorations touchent leurs rôles et leurs tâches. Ce sont les infrastructures du camp qui vont tranquillement se développer : l’eau courante dans les maisons, les habitations bonifiées d’installations sanitaires, etc.

“When PLO came, it was known for their military and politic wings but actually, they provided education services, social services, medical services, infrastructures… So Palestinians had two good organizations in their social life back then, they had the United Nations and the PLO. Like for education we had scholarship system. I’ve seen many people go to those communist countries to study […] Even here in Lebanon they would provide scholarships if people wanted to stay in the country. Also, medical services… here we have Gaza Hospital, it was the biggest hospital and it had really good services […] that was what I call 'The Golden Century' for the services for Palestinians: education, job opportunities, services… Everyone was working, people had money and everything.” (Noura)

“When the Revolution came our lives improved a little bit because we were able to build according to what we wanted. We started to fix the ceiling because in the past

we couldn’t do it … so before the Revolution, we had many difficulties but when they came, we had more job opportunities, we used to go out and work, we could even buy properties.” (Sou’ad, 72 ans)

Rapidement – et cela, avant même l’arrivée de l’OLP au Liban – les récits montrent l’implication spécifique des femmes dans le projet nationaliste; pour plusieurs d’entre elles, cela se réalise par l’extension de leur rôle de mère, de nourrice.

“All the women, including my mother, my aunt, all of them were knitting, making jumpers, scarfs, hats for theses fighters… They would wake up at dawn to have their meal and then, they would never go back to sleep, they would keep knitting to finish the jumpers in one or two days, they would put them in plastic bags and at night, secretly, because they didn’t want the Lebanese Army to know, people would come and knock on your door and you would just give what you had done. There were big bags of stuff […] Sometimes, they would come and collect food for the fighters, like they would knock on your door and you would give whatever you had: olives,

labneh… So the Revolution started by the people supporting the project and by

people giving. People never expected to take back because they felt like 'We suffered a lot from ’48 to ’67. We’ve been in these camps, these houses and why all this?' ”

(Noura)

Puis, le projet prend de l’ampleur et devient rassembleur. Dès lors, des femmes précisent que c’est en couple, en famille qu’on s’y intéresse, qu’on s’y investit.

“After we got married, you know, it was in 1969 so the Revolution started but first 'under cover' in the camp. The Lebanese intelligence had found out that we had fighters in the camp, smuggling of weapons had started in that time in the camp… There was a kind of blockade on people of the camp at first because of the Revolution so my husband and I, after two weeks of marriage, found out about the Revolution and we came in the camp to see what was going on… If my people was suffering, we wanted to suffer with them. So we came and rented a house at the Cinema Palace area near the camp.” (Hayat, 62 ans)

On voit dans l’extrait qui suit comment la Révolution et ses différentes activités rythment la vie des gens, comment ce projet devient le projet de tous. Certaines de ces activités, comme l’entraînement militaire, ne sont pas volontaires, mais trois participantes les qualifient « d’amusantes » même si imposées.

“When I was at high school, the Revolution was in the camp so for us as girls, we were 'forced' to join them and do the military training with them. We used to go at

6 o’clock in the morning to the sandy hill here in the camp and they would train us on how to use weapons and how to become a fedayî… We were also helping to raise money, so we were training from 6 till 8 then we would wash ourselves and go to school. After school, we had to raise money for the Revolution […] We were going after school from Ein Sekke to Ein Sallam area. Me, Hiba, Wassam, Waïla, most of the girls were raising money for the Revolution. We had a box and we would say 'For the Revolution!' and people were very excited about the Revolution so they were giving us.” (Laïla, 59 ans)

Pour certaines femmes, l’engagement dans la lutte nationaliste occupe une place prépondérante. Hayat s’y implique à un point tel qu’elle met en péril sa grossesse, faisant fi des commentaires de sa belle-famille et persistant dans ses activités « révolutionnaires ».

“Then, when the military training started in the camp, I said to my husband: 'I want to join them', so he went and registered my name. At the same time, there was also lectures about the Revolution, they would explain their concept of the Revolution. First, when they started to talk, I didn’t know who were these people and I was motivated to join in just because of the word 'revolution' […] So both of us, my husband and I, were fedayîn […] Then, three months after my marriage, I got pregnant but still, it didn’t stop me from doing my Revolution work, so I kept on with my military training and I kept attending meetings and lectures because whenever you’re starting a revolution, you need regular meetings, lectures and military training […] and my husband’s family said to him: 'Stop her from going to the training, she will have a miscarriage and it’s not healthy for her', but I just didn’t listen to them.” (Hayat, 62 ans)

Deux des participantes ont fait de la Révolution une priorité dans leur vie, la plaçant même au-devant de leur rôle traditionnel de femme et de mère. D’ailleurs, le récit de vie de Hayat sonne tout entier comme celui d’une militante : on y découvre l’enfant, la jeune femme qui rencontre l’amour, l’homme qui allait devenir son conjoint, mais très vite c’est le projet nationaliste palestinien qui prend de l’importance et qui domine le reste de son récit. Hayat a pourtant quatre enfants qu’elle va élever seule, son mari étant mort dans les premières années de la guerre civile libanaise; elle perd sa plus jeune fille pendant le même conflit, mais cette perte n’est que brièvement évoquée. Bien connue et respectée dans la communauté, Hayat poursuit d’ailleurs ses activités politiques et sociales dans le camp. On dit d’elle qu’elle est une femme forte, aussi forte qu’un homme : hiyyé qabaday. C’est celle qui démontre somoud au quotidien et pendant la guerre (les guerres!), qui porte le « nous », qui fait du projet

nationaliste palestinien le projet principal de son parcours. Il y a donc arrimage du rôle spécifique de la femme et du modèle d’implication généralement associé à l’homme.

Si les récits des femmes nous démontrent que le projet révolutionnaire anime et rejoint la plus grande part de la communauté, nous pouvons toutefois déjà observer que les femmes n’occupent habituellement que des rôles de soutien, souvent à travers l’extension de leur rôle de mères : hommes et femmes font l’entraînement militaire, mais aucune femme n’occupe de position d’autorité au sein des organisations politiques. Un tel état de fait se poursuit avec l’évolution du projet révolutionnaire vers la lutte armée, alors que la guerre civile éclate au Liban…