The researchers, Dr. Nazmi AbdelSalam Al-Masri and Lecturer Manar Al-Houbi, from the English Department in the Faculty of Arts at the Islamic University, took part in the “Fourth International Women’s Conference,” which was held at the University of Roehampton.
This participation comes as part of an academic activities series connected to the project “A Semiotic Study of Palestinian Films on Gender-Based Violence and Peace-Building,” which the two researchers won last year with funding from the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP), administrated by Dr. Nazmi Al-Masri in partnership with the University of Glasgow in Britain.
The participation of the two researchers included an introduction to Palestinian women from the perspective of Palestinian culture. They highlighted the most prominent cultural issues by screening four short Palestinian films about violence against Palestinian women on a social and national scale.They analyzed the key Palestinian semiotic elements and Palestinian culture icons from a socio-cultural perspective, which included: the Palestinian flag, embroidered dress, Dome of the Rock, keffiyeh, folk songs, Palestinian music, Palestinian cuisine, and linguistic expressions used upon dealing with Palestinian women. That distinctive cultural showcase won the admiration and appreciation of the participants in the conference.
The research paper in the conference comes as an extension of the researcher Manar Al-Houbi’s master’s thesis on Palestinian films, entitled “The Resistance and Resilience of Palestinian Women in the 3000 Nights film,” which was discussed by Dr. Nazmi Al-Masri with the participation of Professor Alison Phipps from the University of Glasgow as an external discussant.
The thesis is based on information and analytical data collected from a focus group consisting of 18 female students specializing in the English language to train them on the semiotic analysis of four selected Palestinian films: Salt of This Sea, Roof Knocking, Barricade, Today They Took My Son. The researcher introduced the key semiotic elements of these films’ themes, which included Palestinian identity, abuse of power, restrictions on travel, Palestinian women’s resistance to all kinds of injustice, and their struggle for social peace for themselves, their families, and the Palestinian society.
