PUBLICATIONS

2013

Lahav-Raz, Y. 2013. “Halutzot: From Excluded Citizens to ’Good’ Citizens – Hapoel Bnot Sakhnin”. Israeli Sociology 14 (2): 267-88.

This study seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge pertaining to the interrelations between power, class, ethnicity, and nationality, by using Hapoel Bnot Sakhnin as a case study.  This research applies qualitative methodology and was carried out during 2004-2007.  The guiding question addresses the manners in which an excluded female citizen is transformed into a 'good' citizen in a unique national, gender and local context.  The study shows that football plays an important role in shaping the women's gender and ethno-national identity and in creating an intimate connection between the two discourses.  It further reveals that the women's complex placement forces them to position themselves as 'good Arabs' vis-à-vis the society in Israel and as 'good women' whilst faced with the local, masculine Arab surroundings.  They therefore become 'good Arab women' in an attempt to refrain from threatening both groups.  The football team thus demarcates the 'correct' borders as well as the meeting points of the various identities.  The team generates a uniform identity relevant to the 'approved' form of femininity and the 'proper' manifestation of womanhood of Arab nationality-ethnicity. 

2006