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UN/RECOGNIZED: The Life of Mona Al-Habanin and the Story of Palestinian Bedouin Feminism in al-Naqab/Negev Desert
Prof. Ben Shitrit will share work in progress on a co-authored biography which tells the extraordinary story of Mona Al-Habanin (b. 1970), the first and only Palestinian Bedouin woman to ever run for elected office in Israel’s Negev Desert. Through the events of Mona’s life, the book illustrates the larger struggles of her community, illuminates the traumas and resilience of indigenous Bedouin women, and introduces a genealogy of contemporary Bedouin feminism.
Lihi Ben Shitrit is the director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies and the Henry Taub Professor of Israel Studies at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, religion, and politics in the Middle East. She is the author of Righteous Transgressions: Women’s Activism on the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right (Princeton University Press, 2015) and Women and the Holy City: The Struggle over Jerusalem’s Sacred Space (Cambridge University Press, 2020) as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Ben Shitrit’s work has been supported by various fellowships including from Harvard Law School’s Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World (2023), ACLS/Luce Religion, International Affairs and Journalism fellowship (2019-2020), Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative (2018-2019), University of Pennsylvania’s Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (2017), and Harvard Divinity School’s Women’s Studies in Religion Program (2013-2014). She holds a Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. in political science from Yale University and a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University.