Ayelet Harel
My Research
Throughout my career, my research has focused on the intersection of Politics, Conflict Studies and Feminist International Relations. Although most of my studies focus on the local Israeli context, some of them are comparative, and all are anchored in broad theoretical frameworks and conceptualizations in the fields of Political Science, Gender Studies and Feminist IR.
Within this broad context, I have two main areas of research:
- The first focuses on deeply divided societies and the implications of ethnic conflicts for the status of various groups within the divided state— including women’s groups within the major community divisions.
- The second area of research was added in 2013 and is based on feminist security studies and feminist theories in international relations. Under the extensive theoretical umbrella of Feminist IR, I have conducted a series of studies regarding gender and security, in particular, on soldiers and combatants in the military and on activists striving to promote peace.
These two areas of research converge in relation to the study of the everyday of research subjects as a way to analyze power relations and political forces. Feminist epistemologies encourage scholars to look at everyday dynamics to discover the causes of the endurance of patriarchal social systems. This call has profound implications for understanding the flows of causality, the constructions of political cultures, and the interlocked structures of relationships between states, within states, and within societies.
My studies offer theoretical, empirical and methodological insights into the development of these fields. A substantial part of my research has been – and continues to be –conducted independently, but in recent years I have initiated studies in cooperation with other scholars. My research students are writing and studying their research in these fields.
My Book, The Challenge of Sustaining Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies: Citizenship, Rights, and Ethnic Conflicts in India and Israel, addressed the challenge of sustaining a democratic regime in deeply divided societies with focus on the relations between the newly established states of India (since 1947) and Israel (since 1948) and their respective minorities, the Muslim citizens of India and the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, respectively, during the first 60 years of independence. The first edition was published in 2010 by Lexington Press and second edition with a new introduction in Asia by Cambridge University Press India, and Foundation Books. In this work, I emphasize the many important similarities, along with the obvious differences, between India and Israel, which warrant continued investigation. Both countries were created out of the painful processes of partition and
nation-building that significantly affected the constitutional orders put in place and the inter-communal relations that have developed between the different ethno-national communities. This research was published in the above book and in several papers.
Although Israel and India chose seemingly different political routes, similar political mechanisms, in terms of state–minority relations and of minority languages and religious autonomy, among other fields, can be traced in both states. For instance, with a view to maintaining political stability, both Indian and Israeli governments have been willing to promote, to some extent, the status of women within the majority community, but not within the minority communities.
In keeping with the premise that in societies divided along ethnic and religious lines one should hope for conflict reduction rather than expect conflict resolution, I have evaluated the nature of democracy in Israel and India in comparison to two cases in which democracy failed, namely Cyprus and Sri-Lanka. The comparison of countries in which the democratic procedure has survived for more than 60 years with those in which democracy collapsed early on revealed that during the early years of nation-building, homeland ethno-national minorities tend to accept situations in which they are granted fewer rights than the majority, but the curtailing of group rights already granted to the minority—by either the majority community or the state—usually portends major strife. In the case of Cyprus, the cancelation of rights for representation and affirmative action for the Turkish Cypriot minority led to a civil war and partition of the state. Likewise, the cancellation of the official status of the Tamil language by the Sinhalese majority of Sri-Lanka cultivated a marked radicalization of the Tamil minority, whose separatist aspirations fuelled a civil war and ultimately effected the collapse of democracy. This theory was further developed and implemented in another paper that addressed the case of Macedonia.
The study of deeply divided societies led to a further examination of related topics, such as the status of minority languages and the effect of religious autonomy on minority–majority relations and on minority women. With regard to language, my articles analyse how two deeply divided democracies, India and Israel, determined and implemented language. and educational. policies with respect to the major languages of their largest minority communities—Urdu (Indian Muslims) and Arabic, respectively. The findings indicate that both states consigned the minority language to a marginal position on the public stage. Moreover, in both countries, although a certain level of autonomy is given to the minority in the education sphere, the educational level of the minority is markedly low in comparison to that of the majority.
My research on democracy further explored the implications for minority–majority relations and Muslim women of applying minority autonomy and group rights in the sphere of religion in India. In parallel, the research delved into India's policy of religious autonomy for minorities, as viewed by both the political and legal authorities and through the eyes of different sectors of the minority community. By analysing the complex construction of rights within a communalized polity, the above articles sought to transcend the ongoing debate on the implications of Muslim Personal Law in India and to suggest additional policy directives aimed at empowering minority women. The Indian case provides a constructive microcosm for studying these tensions comprehensively and embodies important lessons for other multicultural societies around the globe. I have published an edited book with Arthur Stein in this Topic - Affect, Interest, and Political Entrepreneurs in Ethnic and Religious Conflicts. New-York & London: Routledge, 2018; As well several solo articles.
Later on, I continued to explore this topic even more, with a focus on minority women and the state – in he Israeli context - with Rebecca Kook. Together with Kook, we explore together the narratives of minority women in Israel – from various communities, based on our joint ISF grant 134/19. We have published a series of co-authored articles regarding minority women in Israel and this project is still ongoing.
As a previous research fellow at the I-Core Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters, I study the legal aspects of conversion in modern India. In many Western countries, the official character of the state is constitutionally no longer defined in religious terms. In such secular countries, the state ensures freedom of religion for its citizens and does not intervene in individuals’ beliefs. Nonetheless, religious conversion may present a challenge to the secular nature of the state. While in Asia, most states promote obstacles to religious conversion, India followed Western norms and constitutionally declared its secular and democratic characters. At the same time, in India there is an ongoing discomfort with religious conversion, particularly, conversion to non-Indic religions, namely, Christianity and Islam. The unique socio-political reality of India, comprising a caste system, a history of recurring conquests, forced conversion and delicate inter-religious relations between Hindus and Muslims, affects interactions and policy making in this predominantly Hindu state. My research analyzes alterations in India’s policy directives with regard to religious conversion. More specifically, the research examines power struggles and policy directives toward religious conversion from the time of Indian independence until the present by mapping direct and indirect legislation and jurisdiction in India that has affected religious conversion. An article in this matter is currently under review (with Noa Levy).
In certain situations, India and Israel must address a conflict between a commitment to the major ethnic community of the state and an obligation to equal treatment of all citizens and liberal values of equality regardless of religion, race or sex. In a co-operative research project with Sarina Chen, as published in a paper in 2015, we revealed that both countries ‘suffer’ from ‘normative duality,’ which drives the state and its ruling bodies in two contradictory directions: 1) An aspiration to protect democracy and equality for all its citizens, and 2) a clear tendency toward, and often identification
with, nationalist right-wing entities that seek to promote the nationalist element of the state. We analyzed the ways in which these states deal with this normative duality by examining the responses of each state to ultra-nationalist right-wing terror attacks and by examining the limits of participation in politics. We found that in both cases, the state allows partial freedom of action to ultra-nationalist groups and that there is a significant gap between declared and implemented policy.
Along with my colleague, Shir Daphna-Tekoah, we initiated a large-scale study of women in combat and combat-support positions in the IDF with the aim to learn more about women’s war experiences. We initiated a series of large-scale studies regarding the position of women in conflicts and women in the military, relating to their identity struggles, bodily experiences, traumas, strengths and vulnerabilities. Our research is being conducted by using an innovative qualitative methodology—Carol Gilligan’s “listening guide” technique in order to study various aspects of combatants’ experiences in conflict zones. This research was funded initially by the ISF grant number 160/15. We have a series of research articles and two books regarding women in the military; and we are planning an ongoing and long-lasting research collaboration.
In this project, together with Fany Yuval and Rebecca Kook, we examined the influence of local authorities on the status of women, including minority women. We focused on the political dynamics between local authorities and women residents within diverse cultural communities in Israel. To this end, we examined how these women perceive the role of the local authorities, and how they themselves define their own needs. The study enhanced our understanding of how local authorities can better function as strategic players in the effort to reduce the global phenomenon of gender inequality, in general, and within multi-cultural democracies, in particular. We also develop a framework for using group interviews in qualitative research among minority women and marginalized groups. This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology; and produced several joint articles.
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 study explained: “In the war-room, you see everything. You see more than the soldiers in the field see; you see the whole picture...” Even though such women soldiers are not located physically in the battlefield, they do indeed participate in war—by promoting ‘security’ for their countries and for their comrades in arms and by being responsible for injuring the ‘other.’ The stationing of women in war rooms located on the borders of conflict zones, which are equipped with the latest technologies that bring the reality of the warzone into the war room, may challenge traditional concepts of security, war, and gender roles. The narratives of women soldiers serving in such war rooms can thus provide critical insights into ‘experiencing war’ and ‘making war’ in battlespace. Personal interviews with Israeli women whose mandatory military
service was spent in war rooms revealed multiple narratives of war, including the intertwining of protection, security, and insecurity. The research thus sheds new light on the role of women in the military by exploring women “in a room of their own” in the new war environment.
Together with Mor Aram and Shir Daphna-Tekoah, we study the narrative of women with HIV. AIDS and HIV are usually associated with homosexual men. There is a significant lack of knowledge and narratives about women with the illness, and these are correlated mostly to specific risk groups, such as prostitutes and drug addicts. The stigma and ignorance surrounding women with HIV affects their self-esteem, causing alienation, shame, and guilt. This study seeks to add to the existing knowledge concerning this phenomenon. The main research question we pose is how do women with HIV cope with their diagnosis and post-diagnosis social and intimate relationships? In order to answer that question, we conducted a narrative analysis of individual interviews with ten Israeli women with HIV. The findings provide insights into how these women cope with the challenges and complexities of stigma, the dilemma of concealing vs. revealing their status, and the ignorance of health professionals within the context of Israeli society. The article explores the lived experiences of the women themselves, as well as the notion of stigma as a social phenomenon. Since half of all HIV-positive individuals in the world are women, and since their numbers in Israel are higher than is commonly believed, it is important to share this information with the academic community and general public in order to increase the physical and emotional wellbeing of these women.
The war that broke out on October 7, 2023, was the result of an Israeli political and military failure. The government and the military misread the map and did not estimate Hamas' capabilities and intentions. Our documentation research project deals with women in combat support roles in the frontline war rooms on the border with Gaza (Rotlevy, Harel and Daphna-Tekoah 2024). In this research, we share some insights from our multidisciplinary research. A few weeks after the war had started, we initiated a project of in-depth documentation and research of women serving in war rooms on the Gaza front, following the disaster in Nahal Oz, where dozens of soldiers were killed. The project involved interviews with over sixty interviewees, including women soldiers who served in the Gaza front war rooms and parents. The war rooms are not the only context of abject political and military failure on October 7, and the gender issue is not central to studying that failure. However, studying the performance of women (and men) on this front would help us considerably in identifying key blunders and oversights. The need to highlight the contribution of the lookouts, field observers, and other women soldiers in the frontline war rooms and to give them voice has been partly met by the media since the outbreak of the war, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. This issue requires systematic, in-depth documentation and research. This is the main objective of our project. Another is to commemorate these soldiers’ heritage. Thus, ours is an oral history and commemorative project highly proximate to the actual events.
