Rawia Aburabia (Sapir Academic College School of Law) talk “Gendered Silencing: Restrictions on Palestinian Citizens of Israel’s Freedom of Expression Post-October 2023 ” was held in the framework of the EUME Berliner Seminar on 30 April 2025. The talk was chaired by Schirin Amir-Moazami (Freie Universität Berlin).

This study investigates the gendered dimensions of freedom of expression restrictions experienced by Palestinian citizens of Israel in the context of the ongoing War in Gaza, particularly since the escalation of violence on October 7, 2023. Amid increasing state severe constraints on speech, Palestinian women have disproportionately faced repressive measures, revealing a complex interplay between gender, nationality, and state control. The dismissal and brutal arrest of prominent female academics further underscore the heightened vulnerability of women within this oppressive environment. By synthesizing existing scholarship on state power, the socio-political status of Palestinian citizens, and feminist analyses of repression, along with data from human rights organizations, this study aims to explore how repression and conflict are deeply gendered phenomena. It examines the unique challenges faced by Palestinian women in their struggles for expression and the ways in which they are subjected to political violence by the state. Ultimately, this research contributes to an understanding of the systematic silencing of women during periods of conflict and highlights the mechanisms through which such repression is legitimized by the legal and political systems.

For more information: 
https://www.eume-berlin.de/veranstaltungen/kalender/details/gendered-silencing-restrictions-on-palestinian-citizens-of-israels-freedom-of-expression-post-october-2023

Rawia Aburabia: Gendered Silencing: Restrictions on Palestinian Citizens of Israel’s Freedom of Expression Post-October 2023

In the first decade of his reign, Vladimir Putin de-emphasized ideology to consolidate control and reinstate legitimacy of state power. The 2011 protests led him to shift gears and assume an ideological approach to consolidating legitimacy. This approach, however, led to the empowerment of “ideological entrepreneurs,” some of whom the Kremlin views as a liability. Who are the ideological entrepreneurs and how does the Kremlin manage them? What are the components of the Kremlin’s ideological operation and how does it impact ordinary Russians? Maria Lipman addressed these questions in her talk.

Speaker:
Maria Lipman - Editor, Point & Counterpoint

02/05/2019 - The Kremlin and Its Ideological Toolbox

"A War for the Better Past: Political Visions in Post-Soviet Counterfactual Histories" by Oleksandr Zabirko in the framework of the Prisma Ukraïna workshop "When the Muses are not silent: Intellectuals’ and Artists’ Responses to the Ukraine-Russia Conflict and post-Maidan Developments in Ukraine" in Berlin on 19 June, 2018

As one of the most popular types of speculative fiction, the “alternative” or “counterfactual histories” constitute a literary genre, in which one or more historical events occur differently than in the historical record. While in the Western fiction the literary models of time travel and counterfactual history function as the elements of the unreal “secondary world” and thus construct a distance between the fantastic and the mundane, contemporary Russophone  authors exploit the generic conventions of fantasy or science fiction in order to suggest a continuity between fiction and reality. Being omnipresent in various media, this aestheticized, counterfactual reality captivates its consumers and is arguably capable of substituting the real world, thus making it possible to read and interpret current geopolitical conflicts (like the war in Donbas) through the prism of speculative fiction. Focusing on geopolitical and social modeling in post-Soviet speculative fiction, the paper claims that the images of the Other, the archaic communal structures and the transformations of historical time provide here an aesthetic ground for a large patriotic consensus of a community united by common resentment.

O. Zabirko: A War for the Better Past: Political Visions in Post-Soviet Counterfactual Histories

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien is a platform that promotes the internationalization of research in the humanities and social sciences. It is dedicated to a research agenda that systematically links disciplinary approaches and the expertise of area studies by focusing on entanglements and interactions across national, cultural or regional borders. The Forum invites scholars from all over the world for fellowships and develops transregional communication formats.

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Rawia Aburabia: Gendered Silencing: Restrictions on Palestinian Citizens of Israel’s Freedom of Expression Post-October 2023

Forum Transregionale Studien

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