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Gender, domestic space, and urban upgrading: a case study from Amman Seteney Sham i This article examines an urban upgrading project in two squatter areas in Amman. Through the project, the state asserted its control of every part of women’s lives, addressing most aspects of private and public life in the targeted communities. Women responded by using the powerful language and symbols of domesticity and femininity in successfully dealing with public agencies and personnel to turn the project to their advantage. n th e li tera tu re on M i ddl e Ea s tern societies, the distinction between the public an d private spheres has long been based on an uncritical assumption of the `dual and separate worlds of men and women’ (Nelson 1974, 551). In other words, gender identity has been seen as the crucial factor in defining the public and private domains, rather than types of relationships or activities carried out, or the meanings associated with these. Decisions or activities coming from the `p u bl ic ’ (s ta te) lev el often th r ea ten to dominate and even to take over life in the private sphere through, for example, the p os s ib l e dem o li tio n of a n ur b a n s i te, inclusion in urban upgrading projects, the conducting of surveys and research, or NGO activity sponsored from outside the area. The first area in this study (the Wadi) lies along the slopes and the bottom of a steep gully, the other (the Jabal) on one of the highest hilltops of the city. They are among the most congested and poor areas 1 of central Amman. The families who live there are Palestinian refugees from the 1948 and 1967 exoduses. The Wadi borders a

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refugee camp, and the Jabal is surrounded b y lo w -in c om e n eig h b o u rh o ods . Th e p eo p le th em s elv es do n ot d is tin g u is h between these different areas or draw their boundaries according to legal definitions of u rb a n s p a ce, s u ch a s `s qu atter a r ea ’ , `refugee camp’ , or `low-income housing’ . More important for them are the networks of family and mutual help that define their iden ti ty , g iv e m ean i n g to th eir so ci a l relationships, and sustain them through difficult and insecure economic circumstances. Women’s relations with each other, in their homes, neighbourhoods and the city, challenge prevalent ideas concerning boundaries between the public and the private domains of life.

Wom en in the dom estic environm ent According to a 1980 survey , a `typical’ household in the Wadi or the Jabal lives in a one or two-roomed concrete house with a courtyard, roofed with corrugated metal, connected to water and electricity supplies (th oug h often ill eg ally an d som etim es sha red w ith a neighb our), b ut with no Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996

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sewerage. The average size of household was 6.58 persons, and density per room was 3.54 persons. The average income was 90 JD/month earned by one or possibly two members of the household.2 Work was m o s tl y in sm a ll -s ca l e wo r k sh o p s, th e c o ns tr uc tio n i n du str y , a nd lo w -lev el g o ver n m en t em p lo y m en t, a n d m os t families had at least one member working in th e Ara b G ulf (UD D 1 981 ). In 198 5, a b o ut 10 per c en t o f w o m en w or k ed outside the home or in relatively regular income-generating activities within the home; 3 69.7 per cent of households were classified as single families, 10.2 per cent as exten ded fa m ilies, an d 8.8 p er cent as multiple-family households. Yet this description of th e `average’ squatter household does little to help us understand the social circumstances and arrangements in which people live. When the survey data is listed in terms of the differ en t types of relation s wi th in a household instead of being grouped into types, 75 different configurations can be fou nd w ith in this sm all n um ber of households. The following case shows the complicated situations that poverty creates in a dwelling, even when almost all its occupants are female and related by kinship. The two households of Um Khalil and Aisha shared a dwelling consisting of three rooms b u ilt in co n cre te an d an o pe n cou r tya rd enclosed by a zinco wall. The link between the t wo h ou s eh old s wa s H a san , Um K ha lil’s husband and Um Hasan’s son. Um Khalil and her six daughters lived in one room, her son Khalil and his wife in another and they shared a kitchen and outdoor toilet. Um Khalil’s motherin-law (Um Hasan) lived in another room with her three-times -divorced daughter Aisha, and Aisha’s young daughter from her last marriage. They had a separate kitchen but shared the toilet with the other household. Hasan himself lived down the street with his second wife. Another lin k between the tw o hou sehold s was that Khalil’s wife was Aisha’s eldest daughter from her first marriage.

In spite of these kinship links, there were two separate households within the dwellin g. Although Hasan contributed something towards the expenses of both (while keeping away physically most of the time), Khalil was the main supporter of the fir st h o u s eh o ld (fr om h i s w a g es a s a mechanic) and Aisha of the second one (from her alimony), with some income obtain ed through Um Hasan’ s (rapidly decreasing) activities as a midwife and heal er . A lth ou g h K h alil wa s the w ag e earner, Um Khalil was clearly the head of their joint household and took all financial and other decisions. Aisha’s household was poorer than Um Khalil’s, and a main cause of co n fli ct b etw een th e tw o w a s ov er sharing the water tap, which was the only source of water in the house and the bill for which Um Khalil paid. The ambiguity of these relationships was constantly being played out in the four square metres of the courtyard. The doors of the two sets of rooms did not face one another, and there was an invisible line drawn across the courtyard that only the y ou n g er c h il dren w o ul d cr o ss w ith impunity. The adults kept to their side of the courtyard except wh en en tering or leaving through the common main door. Sometimes Khalil’s wife would be `visiting her mother’. This only entailed crossing the courtyard and yet during her visit, Khalil’s wife would lock up her room as she did when she went to the market or to visit her sisters in an other area of Amm an. U m Hasan once gave a lunch party and invited her grand-daughter (Khalil’s wife) but not h er da u g h ter -i n -la w , U m K h a li l. Th e para llel activi ties of cook ing , w ash ing clothes, putting herbs out to dry in the sun, were done separately and in that part of the courtyard particular to each household. Thus, the courtyard and the dwelling were `shared’ and yet `not shared’ by the two households, who were related to one another simultaneously as kin and non-kin, and through both descent and marriage. On rare occa sion s the tw o ho useh olds

CARL ANDREW S

Gender, domestic space and urban upgrading

The use of courtyard space reflects the complex social relations between households sharing the same courtyard. There is constant visiting between the women and children of the households.

would sit together, for example, during a visit by Hasan’s second wife, Um Khalil’s co-wife and Um Hasan’ s daughter-in-law (previously her sister-in-law because Hasan married his uncle’ s widow as his second wife). During this visit, the tensions of the complicated relation ships were clearly expressed in the seating arrangements.

Relationships betw een w om en across households Sim il ar c om plex sp atia l divis ion s a lso existed in the more common situation of multiple-family-households where a couple lived with one or more of their married sons and their respective families. Furthermore, in some cases, a household, as an eco n om i c a n d so ci a l u n i t, w as s p rea d across several dwellings. Women’ s relations also stretched across many households.

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O n e o f th e m o s t s en s itiv e a r en as through which to explore the way women organ ise th eir relation ships inside an d outside the household is that of work. The i n ten sel y so ci a l n a tu r e of h o us ew o rk b ec om es cl ear w h en lo o k in g a t h ow women spend their days and fulfil their o b li g ati on s . Th e s co p e a n d w ei g h t o f w omen ’ s responsibilities and decisionmaking is encapsulated in the fact that most men in the Wadi (and all those who are considered to be `good’ men) turn over their entire earnings, other than a small amount of `cigarette money’, to their wives o r to th eir m oth ers. Th is mo ney is th e measure of a woman’ s authority in the household but also means that it is up to her to make ends meet and to provide for th e fo od , th e n ec ess i ti es an d th e emergencies. Running a large household on a small amount of money is time-consuming and difficult. To manage, women in different households have to rely upon each other for help with housework, shopping, and child-care; for aid, in financial emergencies; and for information on where the cheapest vegetables or the cheapest doctors are to be found. Households that reciprocate daily in such matters may be said to form `mutual a i d u n i ts’ . Al th ou g h su c h u n i ts a re generally based on kinship, yet they are f or m ed sel ecti vely , a n d fr o m al l th e possible combinations, one or two units will emerge. The prevalent pattern was that u n i ts ten ded to b e for m ed b etw een husband’s sister/brother’s wife. R eg ula r recipr ocity co uld al so tak e place between households which were not related by kinship, and in this case physical closeness was the major factor. Sometimes these relationships formed because of the absence of kinsfolk nearby, or because of conflict in families, but often they existed alongside kin-based units. They included groups of women that formed around a single task. A good example is women’s coo peration in em br oiderin g P alestini an dresses. The cloth, thread and panels of the

dress circulated among women according to their expertise. A woman particularly good at the difficult embroidery of the neckline may not be as skilled as another at a certain stitch, or in cutting out the dress. A dr es s p a rti cu l ar ly a dm i red w o u ld circulate in different households for the design to be copied or adapted.4 These relationships were formed and maintained by women, irrespective of the quality of the relations between the male heads of their households. Such mutual-aid groups had some continuity, but tended to su b s ide a n d r e-fo rm a c co rdi n g to th e relationships of the women involved. Reciprocity between households operated on two levels: women to women; and children to children. In addition there were adult/child relations as in child-care and in the services that children performed for women, such as shopping, running errands and carrying messages. Thus there was a great deal of visiting and a constant flow of food and children between these interconnected households, located at different parts of the residential area or in other n ei g h b ou r h oo ds . T h us , w om en w ere involved in relationships stretching across the squatter area, into the adjacent neighbourhoods, and over to far-flung districts of the city. These relationships show that people did not identify with the area as a whole or differentiate between `squatter’ and `nonsquatter’ in the formation of their social rel ati on s , w h ic h s tretc h ed a cr o ss a n d beyond the area designated as the `squatter area’ by the authorities.

The urban upgrading project Since 1980, the families of the Jabal area have been p art of a n urb an upg rading pr oj ect, i m pl em en ted b y th e U r b an Development Department (UDD), an ad hoc agency created for th is purpose by the municipality. The aim of the project was to extend basic services to the squatter areas

CARL AN DREW S

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The upgrading project has led to sharp contrasts in the physical structure of the squatter area.

and to enable their inhabitants to acquire legal tenure to their land and houses. This involved buying the land from the legal owners, extending water, electricity and sewerage connections, paving the paths and alleys, and making available long-term loans to enable families to pay for the land and the cost of the services and thus to acquire legal title. Loans were made available to build new houses. The incentives for building a new house, or upgrading an existing one, were many. A house would be a more viable economic proposition with the acquisition of tenure, but also the municipality would not connect new services to a house that did not meet legal building codes. This meant that the house had to be built of `permanent materials’ i.e. concrete or stone, and had to observe regulations concerning the degree of set-back and percentage of built-up and roofed areas. Resistance to the UDD project in the Jabal was strong. Having been settled in 1948, by 1980 the area was well-established,

its inhabitants generally felt secure from eviction, and most houses were connected to water and electricity. At first glance it w ou l d a p p ea r th a t th e res is ta n ce w as m os tly ca rr ied ou t by m en , es p ec ia ll y elders. A number of the men were jailed for inciting demonstrations, until the mayor interceded to free them, and negotiations took place to sort out differences between the UDD and the community. Eventually the project went ahead, but with a substantial reduction of its cost to the inhabitants. While public confrontations took place with the male elders of the community, and wh ile the U DD tried to s et up an alternative leadership by encouraging young men to form neighbourhood associations, it was the women (in this, and other squatter areas) who interacted on a daily basis with the UDD staff, who argued with them, and tried to negotiate better terms. There was a heavy UDD staff presence in the area throughout the major phase of project im plementation. Th e Jabal wa s being invaded constantly by outsiders: project engineers, social workers, interviewers for successive surveys, visitors from the government and from the World Bank. But the role of the project in restructuring the lives of the women and their fa m il ies w en t b ey o n d u n c om fo rta b le interactions with strangers.

Planning to restructure social relations The project had a definition of not only how a family `should’ live, but also what a family `is’. Married sons were eligible for separate plots, which encouraged multiplefamily households to split up. At the same time, the project, while safeguarding the ow n er s h ip o f p l ots , a ls o l im i ted th is ow n er s h ip , a n d h al ted th e p ro ces s o f expansion of plots that some households had begun. The project also defined what a `co m m un i ty ’ c on s is ted of, a n d h ow it should organise its activities. The idea that the community centre was the main space

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for activities and decision-making had to be imposed by holding public meetings there, ins tead of in the houses of local l ea ders . Th e un ea sin es s felt ab ou t th e community centre was partly due to the fa ct th at it rep resen ted a s pa ce w h ich w ould not be con trolled by th e people themselves. Instead, it was a public space controlled by the state, and its activities (football, literacy classes, sewing works h o ps ) w er e to b e deci ded b y ou ts ide authorities. Furthermore, the use of the space was indeterminate: it was unclear whether it was for women or for men, or when it would be used by one or the other. A com m ittee for org an is in g s po rt a n d cultural activities was established. This was mainly composed of educated young men, who immediately came into conflict with the elders over forming a soccer team.

Blurring the private and the public As a result of the upgrading project, the area came under the direct jurisdiction of a government agency that took responsibility for every aspect of life, from health to f am i ly r ela tio n s h ip s , to c om m u n ity activities. Regardless of the possible beneficial impact of these activities and the arguable importance of `integrated development’ approaches, the point remains that the UD D project led to a major restructuring of space, life, and social relations in the community. What initially started as physical urban renewal ended up including community services, community centres, v oc a ti on a l tra in i n g , an d in c om egenerating projects for women. If we define the `private’ , following Ba rrin g to n M o ore (1 98 4), a s the ar en a which people try to keep imm une from intrusion by public authority, then we can s a y th a t ev en th e d om a in fo r m al ly designated by the project as private had also become public. The household and f am i ly w ere al so bei n g ta rg eted for `upgrading’ , through lectures, censuses,

surveys, child rearing classes, nutrition classes, and income-generating projects. Every aspect of family life, from habits of toilet use to household budgets, became the object of enumeration, classification, and analysis; and the family became part of the public domain. Further, the body of each woman and child also became public, or at least public knowledge, through fertility and reproductive behaviour surveys and family planning interventions.5

Wom en’s responses In recent years , we h ave become more sen s iti ve n o t o n ly to th e exi sten c e of informal groups and structures, but also to methods of wielding power, tactics to resist such power, and processes for negotiation and to undermine dominant groups. But recognising that women engage in these types of subtle relations and practices does not (as early feminists feared) cast them out of the formal arena, or into the category of the powerless. The women of the Jabal reacted to the project by trying to influence and direct the changes so that they would be of benefit to them and their families. They negotiated th e a m ou nt of m on th l y p ay m en ts, th e schedule of payments, and the regulations imposed concerning the quality of their dwellings, and sought access to sources of welfare through UDD staff. In doing so, women had to physically transcend community and neighbourhood boundaries and emerge into the full gaze of the public. Women continuously visited the UD D a n d o th er m un i ci p al ity of fic es, wearing their Pa lestinian embroidered dresses, sitting, standing, arguing, and always insisting on seeing the mudir, the director. If the women did not achieve what they needed on the first visit, they made repeated visits until some compromis e w as r eac h ed. Ir on i ca l ly , in th ei r negotiations, women appealed to public officials as women, and in their roles as mo th ers , w i ves , a n d g ua r dia n s o f th e

Gender, domestic space and urban upgrading

domestic domain. In other words, they brought the power of the private domain to bear on the public one. The `public domain’ now seems to be as ambiguous and illdefi n ed a s th e p r iva te. Th e c ul tu ra l construction of `womanhood’ takes place at all levels of society, and can be turned to women’ s advantage, in both public and private domains. Seteney Shami is Jordanian. From 1982-95 she worked in the Department of Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Jordan, and has also been a visiting professor at universities in the USA. Her research interests include urban politics, identity and nationalism, Middle East and the Caucasus. Address: The Population Council, PO Box 115, Dokki, Egypt.

N otes 1 The squatter settlements were first formed in 1948 with the influx of Palestinian refugees into A m m a n. T h e y fo rm e d a r oun d th e refugee camps that were set up by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief Works Agency) at the then-periphery of the city. The squatters were refugees who had either came too late to be included in a camp, or were crowded out of one, or were placed in a camp that was far from work opportu nities, kinsfolk, and covillagers. They built shacks on vacant land adjacent to camps where they had kin upon whom they could depend for support. As refugees they were eligible for UNRWA aid, and this was further incentive to live close to U NR W A sc hools an d clinics . A s the city expanded, both the camps and the squatter areas became encapsulated within residential neighbourhoods. In recent years these areas have also begun to attract poor rural migrants a nd n on -Jor d an ia n m ig r an t w or k er s . However the majority of inhabitants remain Palestinian refugees and, due to the lack of space, the newcomers are not able to build houses but rent or buy them from the original squatters. 2 At the time of the research 1 Jordan Dinar equalled approximately 3US$. Now it equals approximately 1.4US$.

3 T his f ig ur e is t ak en fr om th e 1 9 85 reassessment survey of the upgraded areas (Bisharat and Zagha 1986). The survey was highly sensitive to the difficulties of asking about women’s employment and consequently the figu re s ar e r eliab le. F or m or e o n women’s employment in the squatter areas see Shami and Taminian 1990. 4 A great deal more can be said on the issue of e mb r oide r y, w h ic h a cts as a co nd e ns e d symbol of Palestinian identity, as a marker of femininity and its accompanying skills, and as economic capital. 5 I do not exempt my own research from this appraisal. The fieldwork in the Wadi and the Jabal was part of the reassessment project directed by Dr. Leila Bisharat. It included a physical-demographic-health survey of the fou r upg raded sites and anthropol og ical fieldwork carried out by myself and Lucine Taminian. The funding for the anthropological component was from IDRC (Canada) and the research was conducted independently but under the general auspices of the UDD. I would like to acknowledge here the many conversations with Leila Bisharat and Lucine Taminian that inform this analysis.

References Bisharat, L and Zagha, H (1986) Health and Population in SquatterAreas of Amman: A Reassessment After Four Years of Upgrading, Urban Development Department: Amman. Laslett, P (1978) Household and Family in Past Time, Cambridge University Press: London. Moore Jr. B (1984) Privacy: Studies in Social and Cultural History, M E Sharpe, Inc.: NY. Nelson, C (1974) `Public and private politics: w om e n in th e M idd le E as te rn w or ld’ , American Ethnologist 1:3, 551-563. Shami, S and Taminian, L (1990) `Women’s participation in the Jordanian labour force: a comparison of rural and urban patterns’, In Sh am i, S et al, W omen and Work in Arab Society: Case Studies from Egypt, Jordan and Sudan , Berg Publishers: London. U DD ( Ur ba n De v e lo pm en t D ep ar tm en t) (1981) Summary Tables of Comprehensive SocialPhysical Survey. Amman: Urban Development Department.

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