Ayelet Harel-Shalev
Biographic Data
| ID | 89080 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ayelet Harel-Shalev |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ayelet |
| FAMILY NAME | Harel-Shalev |
| SIGNATURE | HAREL-SHALEV A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9502-0095 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 112 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger”: The Intersection of Breast Cancer Survival and Divorce
Anything you can do [I can do better]: Exploring women’s agency and gendered protection in state militaries
Women who are currently serving in a variety of combat roles and combat support positions in many state militaries around the globe have had to struggle for their positions by proving their abilities, and such struggles are still ongoing. Based on interview materials with veterans, this article examines the ways in which the veterans interpret their roles as women in combat positions and how they understand agency. The article further traces how …
Refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces reserves in an era of anti-democratic judicial reform
In Israel, most citizens are obligated to serve in the military for a mandatory period and subsequently in the reserve forces for about 21–45 days per year up to the age of 44. Many veterans continue to serve in the reserves for even longer periods. However, uncharacteristically, during 2023, reservists were linked to the social protest in Israel. The ever-widening public protest in Israel was unprecedented. Every Saturday night, from January 202…
Routine trauma”—Awareness of combat trauma in women combatants
Through qualitative research and narrative analysis, this study offers mental health professionals, policy makers, and scholars ways to gain a nuanced insight into women's combat trauma that avoids categorization. Based on the research findings, we suggest that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of women soldiers, who face a "double battle"-combat, with the attendant trauma, and the gendered biases of the masculine m…
The Politics of Belonging: A Study of Educated Jewish Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Women in Israel
The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform t…
Breaking the binaries in research—The Listening Guide
"A room of one's own(?)" in battlespace - women soldiers in war rooms
At present, women serve in a variety of combat roles and combat support positions in various militaries around the globe. In parallel, new technologies of warfare are transferring more and more soldiers, including women, from the sidelines into the heart of the battlespace. More women soldiers are thus becoming significant participants in war by virtue of their assignment to strategic war rooms. As one of the women soldiers interviewed in this st…
Learning from silences
Recently, a colleague gave me a compliment (I think); he said that in a recent controversy in my academic community (in which the misconduct of some senior colleagues was under discussion), I had a
Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities: An Analysis of Group Interview Narratives of Bedouin Women
This article focuses on the creative and innovative modes of negotiation that women in severely patriarchal societies often exhibit in their attempts to actively pursue their own goals in the face of risk. Based on group interviews with Bedouin women in southern Israel about their everyday lives, the research explores both the risks and the ways in which the women deal with them. The research expands on discussions about the nature of women’s age…
Patriarchal norms, practices and changing gendered power relations - narratives of Ultra-Orthodox women in Israel
The Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is undergoing massive changes, and these changes are clearly impacting the status of women, the different types of goals women set for themselves, and the myriad of ways in which they act towards achieving them. In this article, we examine these changes, focusing on how these women formulate and reformulate articulations of domestic femininity in ways that do not challenge the ‘Orthodox Ideal’ in the fundame…
Affect, Interest and Political Entrepreneurs in Ethnic and Religious Conflicts
Focus groups and the collective construction of meaning: Listening to minority women
Where am I in this story?' - listening to activist women writers
This study discusses the dynamic roles of activist women in militarized societies. It offers an analysis of the perspectives of Israeli activist women regarding their roles as women activists and writers. In their non-fiction writings, these activist women voice their resistance and document both their everyday lives and political perspectives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their socio-political activism and resistance to the Israeli …
Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel: Local government as a site of ambivalent modernity
In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in mai…
The political is personal - everyday lives of women in Israel/Palestine
Beyond binaries: Analysing violent state actors in Critical Studies
This article discusses the importance of including the voices of violent state actors in critical research about security and terrorism. Critical Studies tend to avoid narrative research about such actors or to give them “face” and place. However, to understand violence, scholars should listen to, and explore, the narratives of those who are committing violence. The article seeks ways to produce emancipatory knowledge and to be critical without b…
Drawing (on) women’s military experiences and narratives – Israeli women soldiers’ challenges in the military environment
This article utilizes arts-based methods as a feminist methodology for understanding women’s experiences in military service, according to theories of feminist security studies. It explores how non-combatant women in the army retrospectively narrate stressful situations that happened during their military service. Using arts-based methods, we examine how they derive meaning from their experiences in a masculine, military environment, affected by …
The Politics of Trauma Studies: What Can We Learn From Women Combatants' Experiences of Traumatic Events in Conflict Zones
Wars, combat, and political developments triggered the study of trauma. Knowledge about trauma initially emerged from the experiences of men combatants in the battlefield. At a later stage, the study of trauma focused on women and children subject to violence and abuse. The current research suggests that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of competent women exposed to traumatic events and not merely as victims of war…
Ancestral and instrumental in the politics of ethnic and religious conflict
Ethnicity, like race, religion, and nationality, is a feature of group identity that is contested. There are literatures devoted to each, and in each there are those who see the origins of identity and affiliation in ancestry and deeply rooted affect and those who see these as socially constructed and instrumentally used by elites. Yet all recognize that the ancestral is socially constructed and that social constructions make use of existing cult…
Gendering ethnic conflicts: Minority women in divided societies - the case of Muslim women in India
This article explores the practical and theoretical significance and long-term consequences of the failure to incorporate women's interests in post-conflict negotiations by examining the case of Muslim women in India. Analyses of deeply divided societies must recognize that political competition and political violence do not affect all citizens equally. Also, the "larger picture" depicted by inter-community conflicts should not overshadow the eff…
The “Double-Battle”: Women combatants and their embodied experiences in war zones
Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about women in combat by exploring women combatants’ experiences of war through interviews with women soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who served as combatants or in combat-support roles in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We proffer that the bodily experiences of women combatants disturb conventional international relations and hegemonic masculine war metanarratives that either abstract or glorif…
Bringing Women’s Voices Back In: Conducting Narrative Analysis in IR
In exploring wars and conflicts, Critical Security Studies and Feminist International Relations (IR) use various methodologies, including nontraditional avenues of inquiry. This study follows these theoretical and methodological perspectives and suggests a methodology that will contribute to contemporary debates in IR. Specifically, the study offers an innovative application of Carol Gilligan’s method, the “Listening Guide” (LG). The research dem…
Hybridity and Israel’s Democratic Order: The End of an Imperfect Balance
This article deals with the quality of Israel’s democracy from the perspective of what it views as the fundamentally hybrid nature of the Israeli regime. From its inception, Israel has been committed to two seemingly conflicting sets of values, one universal (reflected in democratic institutions, practices and ideals) and the other particularistic (reflected in national institutions benefitting a segment of the Israeli population). This article e…
Living in a movie” — Israeli women combatants in conflict zones
Policy Analysis beyond Personal Law: M uslim Women's Rights in I ndia
Granting legal rights to groups in deeply divided societies is important and necessary, but the cost of awarding these rights—in terms of their negative impact on civil rights, and particularly on women's rights—are key issues affecting the politics and policy of diverse polities. The article explores the implications for Muslim women of applying minority autonomy in India. In parallel, it delves into India's policy of religious autonomy for mino…
Focus groups and the collective construction of meaning: Listening to minority women
Patriarchal norms, practices and changing gendered power relations - narratives of Ultra-Orthodox women in Israel
The Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is undergoing massive changes, and these changes are clearly impacting the status of women, the different types of goals women set for themselves, and the myriad of ways in which they act towards achieving them. In this article, we examine these changes, focusing on how these women formulate and reformulate articulations of domestic femininity in ways that do not challenge the ‘Orthodox Ideal’ in the fundame…
Bringing Women’s Voices Back In: Conducting Narrative Analysis in IR
In exploring wars and conflicts, Critical Security Studies and Feminist International Relations (IR) use various methodologies, including nontraditional avenues of inquiry. This study follows these theoretical and methodological perspectives and suggests a methodology that will contribute to contemporary debates in IR. Specifically, the study offers an innovative application of Carol Gilligan’s method, the “Listening Guide” (LG). The research dem…
The Politics of Trauma Studies: What Can We Learn From Women Combatants' Experiences of Traumatic Events in Conflict Zones
Wars, combat, and political developments triggered the study of trauma. Knowledge about trauma initially emerged from the experiences of men combatants in the battlefield. At a later stage, the study of trauma focused on women and children subject to violence and abuse. The current research suggests that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of competent women exposed to traumatic events and not merely as victims of war…
"A room of one's own(?)" in battlespace - women soldiers in war rooms
At present, women serve in a variety of combat roles and combat support positions in various militaries around the globe. In parallel, new technologies of warfare are transferring more and more soldiers, including women, from the sidelines into the heart of the battlespace. More women soldiers are thus becoming significant participants in war by virtue of their assignment to strategic war rooms. As one of the women soldiers interviewed in this st…
Living in a movie” — Israeli women combatants in conflict zones
Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel: Local government as a site of ambivalent modernity
In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in mai…
The “Double-Battle”: Women combatants and their embodied experiences in war zones
Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about women in combat by exploring women combatants’ experiences of war through interviews with women soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who served as combatants or in combat-support roles in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We proffer that the bodily experiences of women combatants disturb conventional international relations and hegemonic masculine war metanarratives that either abstract or glorif…
Beyond binaries: Analysing violent state actors in Critical Studies
This article discusses the importance of including the voices of violent state actors in critical research about security and terrorism. Critical Studies tend to avoid narrative research about such actors or to give them “face” and place. However, to understand violence, scholars should listen to, and explore, the narratives of those who are committing violence. The article seeks ways to produce emancipatory knowledge and to be critical without b…
The problematic nature of religious autonomy to minorities in democracies – the case of India's Muslims
This article focuses on the ambivalent effect of religious autonomy in India and the outcome for democracy in the country. The Indian constitution guarantees autonomy to its religious minorities, and promises the minorities the freedom independently to manage their religious affairs in addition to a proportional share of the budget. At the same time, the constitution emphasizes the aspiration to legislate ‘uniform personal laws’ for all the citiz…
The Politics of Belonging: A Study of Educated Jewish Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Women in Israel
The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform t…
The political is personal - everyday lives of women in Israel/Palestine
Drawing (on) women’s military experiences and narratives – Israeli women soldiers’ challenges in the military environment
This article utilizes arts-based methods as a feminist methodology for understanding women’s experiences in military service, according to theories of feminist security studies. It explores how non-combatant women in the army retrospectively narrate stressful situations that happened during their military service. Using arts-based methods, we examine how they derive meaning from their experiences in a masculine, military environment, affected by …
Lingual and Educational Policy toward “Homeland Minorities” in Deeply Divided Societies: India and Israel as Case Studies
In a bilingual or multilingual society, certain sectors may be regarded as disloyal should they speak the language of state enemies or be associated in one way or another with neighboring hostile countries. Within this framework, the present article analyzes how two deeply divided democracies, India and Israel, determined and implemented language and educational policies with respect to two major minority languages, Urdu and Arabic. A comparison …
Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities: An Analysis of Group Interview Narratives of Bedouin Women
This article focuses on the creative and innovative modes of negotiation that women in severely patriarchal societies often exhibit in their attempts to actively pursue their own goals in the face of risk. Based on group interviews with Bedouin women in southern Israel about their everyday lives, the research explores both the risks and the ways in which the women deal with them. The research expands on discussions about the nature of women’s age…
Gendering ethnic conflicts: Minority women in divided societies - the case of Muslim women in India
This article explores the practical and theoretical significance and long-term consequences of the failure to incorporate women's interests in post-conflict negotiations by examining the case of Muslim women in India. Analyses of deeply divided societies must recognize that political competition and political violence do not affect all citizens equally. Also, the "larger picture" depicted by inter-community conflicts should not overshadow the eff…
Hybridity and Israel’s Democratic Order: The End of an Imperfect Balance
This article deals with the quality of Israel’s democracy from the perspective of what it views as the fundamentally hybrid nature of the Israeli regime. From its inception, Israel has been committed to two seemingly conflicting sets of values, one universal (reflected in democratic institutions, practices and ideals) and the other particularistic (reflected in national institutions benefitting a segment of the Israeli population). This article e…
Policy Analysis beyond Personal Law: M uslim Women's Rights in I ndia
Granting legal rights to groups in deeply divided societies is important and necessary, but the cost of awarding these rights—in terms of their negative impact on civil rights, and particularly on women's rights—are key issues affecting the politics and policy of diverse polities. The article explores the implications for Muslim women of applying minority autonomy in India. In parallel, it delves into India's policy of religious autonomy for mino…
Anything you can do [I can do better]: Exploring women’s agency and gendered protection in state militaries
Women who are currently serving in a variety of combat roles and combat support positions in many state militaries around the globe have had to struggle for their positions by proving their abilities, and such struggles are still ongoing. Based on interview materials with veterans, this article examines the ways in which the veterans interpret their roles as women in combat positions and how they understand agency. The article further traces how …
Learning from silences
Recently, a colleague gave me a compliment (I think); he said that in a recent controversy in my academic community (in which the misconduct of some senior colleagues was under discussion), I had a
Ancestral and instrumental in the politics of ethnic and religious conflict
Ethnicity, like race, religion, and nationality, is a feature of group identity that is contested. There are literatures devoted to each, and in each there are those who see the origins of identity and affiliation in ancestry and deeply rooted affect and those who see these as socially constructed and instrumentally used by elites. Yet all recognize that the ancestral is socially constructed and that social constructions make use of existing cult…
The Status of Minority Languages in Deeply Divided Societies: Urdu in India and Arabic in Israel—a Comparative Perspective
Determination of an official language is one of the most complex and important tasks befalling every multilinguistic state. This decision is political in nature. Its impact for members of linguistic minorities is fateful due to its effect on these groups socioeconomic status, as well as their collective identity. This article analyzes how two deeply divided democracies India and Israel determined and implemented language policies with respect to …
Lingual and Educational Policy toward “Homeland Minorities” in Deeply Divided Societies: India and Israel as Case Studies
In a bilingual or multilingual society, certain sectors may be regarded as disloyal should they speak the language of state enemies or be associated in one way or another with neighboring hostile countries. Within this framework, the present article analyzes how two deeply divided democracies, India and Israel, determined and implemented language and educational policies with respect to two major minority languages, Urdu and Arabic. A comparison …
The problematic nature of religious autonomy to minorities in democracies – the case of India's Muslims
This article focuses on the ambivalent effect of religious autonomy in India and the outcome for democracy in the country. The Indian constitution guarantees autonomy to its religious minorities, and promises the minorities the freedom independently to manage their religious affairs in addition to a proportional share of the budget. At the same time, the constitution emphasizes the aspiration to legislate ‘uniform personal laws’ for all the citiz…
Policy Analysis beyond Personal Law: M uslim Women's Rights in I ndia
Granting legal rights to groups in deeply divided societies is important and necessary, but the cost of awarding these rights—in terms of their negative impact on civil rights, and particularly on women's rights—are key issues affecting the politics and policy of diverse polities. The article explores the implications for Muslim women of applying minority autonomy in India. In parallel, it delves into India's policy of religious autonomy for mino…
Media, war, and terrorism: Responses from the Middle East and Asia
Peter van der Veer and Shoma Munshi, London & New York, Routledge, 2004, 260 pp, US$195 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-4153-3140-1 The edited volume Media, War And Terrorism: Responses from the Middle Eas
Hybridity and Israel’s Democratic Order: The End of an Imperfect Balance
This article deals with the quality of Israel’s democracy from the perspective of what it views as the fundamentally hybrid nature of the Israeli regime. From its inception, Israel has been committed to two seemingly conflicting sets of values, one universal (reflected in democratic institutions, practices and ideals) and the other particularistic (reflected in national institutions benefitting a segment of the Israeli population). This article e…
Living in a movie” — Israeli women combatants in conflict zones
The “Double-Battle”: Women combatants and their embodied experiences in war zones
Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about women in combat by exploring women combatants’ experiences of war through interviews with women soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who served as combatants or in combat-support roles in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We proffer that the bodily experiences of women combatants disturb conventional international relations and hegemonic masculine war metanarratives that either abstract or glorif…
Bringing Women’s Voices Back In: Conducting Narrative Analysis in IR
In exploring wars and conflicts, Critical Security Studies and Feminist International Relations (IR) use various methodologies, including nontraditional avenues of inquiry. This study follows these theoretical and methodological perspectives and suggests a methodology that will contribute to contemporary debates in IR. Specifically, the study offers an innovative application of Carol Gilligan’s method, the “Listening Guide” (LG). The research dem…
Beyond binaries: Analysing violent state actors in Critical Studies
This article discusses the importance of including the voices of violent state actors in critical research about security and terrorism. Critical Studies tend to avoid narrative research about such actors or to give them “face” and place. However, to understand violence, scholars should listen to, and explore, the narratives of those who are committing violence. The article seeks ways to produce emancipatory knowledge and to be critical without b…
Drawing (on) women’s military experiences and narratives – Israeli women soldiers’ challenges in the military environment
This article utilizes arts-based methods as a feminist methodology for understanding women’s experiences in military service, according to theories of feminist security studies. It explores how non-combatant women in the army retrospectively narrate stressful situations that happened during their military service. Using arts-based methods, we examine how they derive meaning from their experiences in a masculine, military environment, affected by …
The Politics of Trauma Studies: What Can We Learn From Women Combatants' Experiences of Traumatic Events in Conflict Zones
Wars, combat, and political developments triggered the study of trauma. Knowledge about trauma initially emerged from the experiences of men combatants in the battlefield. At a later stage, the study of trauma focused on women and children subject to violence and abuse. The current research suggests that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of competent women exposed to traumatic events and not merely as victims of war…
Ancestral and instrumental in the politics of ethnic and religious conflict
Ethnicity, like race, religion, and nationality, is a feature of group identity that is contested. There are literatures devoted to each, and in each there are those who see the origins of identity and affiliation in ancestry and deeply rooted affect and those who see these as socially constructed and instrumentally used by elites. Yet all recognize that the ancestral is socially constructed and that social constructions make use of existing cult…
Gendering ethnic conflicts: Minority women in divided societies - the case of Muslim women in India
This article explores the practical and theoretical significance and long-term consequences of the failure to incorporate women's interests in post-conflict negotiations by examining the case of Muslim women in India. Analyses of deeply divided societies must recognize that political competition and political violence do not affect all citizens equally. Also, the "larger picture" depicted by inter-community conflicts should not overshadow the eff…
Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel: Local government as a site of ambivalent modernity
In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in mai…
The political is personal - everyday lives of women in Israel/Palestine
Affect, Interest and Political Entrepreneurs in Ethnic and Religious Conflicts
Focus groups and the collective construction of meaning: Listening to minority women
Where am I in this story?' - listening to activist women writers
This study discusses the dynamic roles of activist women in militarized societies. It offers an analysis of the perspectives of Israeli activist women regarding their roles as women activists and writers. In their non-fiction writings, these activist women voice their resistance and document both their everyday lives and political perspectives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their socio-political activism and resistance to the Israeli …
Learning from silences
Recently, a colleague gave me a compliment (I think); he said that in a recent controversy in my academic community (in which the misconduct of some senior colleagues was under discussion), I had a
Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities: An Analysis of Group Interview Narratives of Bedouin Women
This article focuses on the creative and innovative modes of negotiation that women in severely patriarchal societies often exhibit in their attempts to actively pursue their own goals in the face of risk. Based on group interviews with Bedouin women in southern Israel about their everyday lives, the research explores both the risks and the ways in which the women deal with them. The research expands on discussions about the nature of women’s age…
Patriarchal norms, practices and changing gendered power relations - narratives of Ultra-Orthodox women in Israel
The Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is undergoing massive changes, and these changes are clearly impacting the status of women, the different types of goals women set for themselves, and the myriad of ways in which they act towards achieving them. In this article, we examine these changes, focusing on how these women formulate and reformulate articulations of domestic femininity in ways that do not challenge the ‘Orthodox Ideal’ in the fundame…
Breaking the binaries in research—The Listening Guide
"A room of one's own(?)" in battlespace - women soldiers in war rooms
At present, women serve in a variety of combat roles and combat support positions in various militaries around the globe. In parallel, new technologies of warfare are transferring more and more soldiers, including women, from the sidelines into the heart of the battlespace. More women soldiers are thus becoming significant participants in war by virtue of their assignment to strategic war rooms. As one of the women soldiers interviewed in this st…
Routine trauma”—Awareness of combat trauma in women combatants
Through qualitative research and narrative analysis, this study offers mental health professionals, policy makers, and scholars ways to gain a nuanced insight into women's combat trauma that avoids categorization. Based on the research findings, we suggest that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of women soldiers, who face a "double battle"-combat, with the attendant trauma, and the gendered biases of the masculine m…
Sociology (26 works) · Political science (23 works) · Law (17 works) · Law (16 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Gender Studies (14 works) · Gender, Security, and Conflict (14 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · History (10 works)