This volume introduces the reader to the multiple roles and challenges that women faced in the interaction between the social and political dimensions of Arab/Palestinian society on the West Bank. In her introduction, Suha Sabbagh contextualizes the role of women within the general socio-political struggles of the West Bank and in the Arab world.The international media, as well as Arabic commentators have failed to accurately assess the contributions of womenÕs institutions, and the spontaneous support of traditional women to the Intifada. What now will be the impact of the politicization of these traditional women on the predicated social transformations of the emerging Palestinian state? Will the women seek to alter their role in society and what will be the response to their attempts? The essays in this multidisciplinary work, written from an ÒinsidersÓ perspective seek to answer these questions.The four essays in section one, ÒDefining the Role of Women,Ó provide the social and political background for understanding the role of women, including their position in the family, issues that spurred on the development of a womenÕs movement and the organization known as WomenÕs Work Committees which developed during the Intifada.The second section, ÒHow the Culture Recorded WomenÕs Role,Ó provides an introduction to the role of gender in culture and literature that flowed from the Intifada. While GhazalehÕs essay indicates that political poetry reflects no serious changes in the perception of women, KanaanÕs shows that there were changes in folkloric legends. SabbaghÕs, however, finds as early as 1967, some women writers had already developed feminist consciousness.As the title of the third section indicates, ÒThe Double Burden of Women,Ó addresses the challenges facing women. Robin MorganÕs personal account of her visit to the West Bank is complimented by SarrajÕs psycho-social analysis. Interviews with Hanan Ashrawi and with five women activists give this section a personal perspective.In the fourth and final section, ÒAnticipations After Oslo,Ó Amal Kawar focuses on developments since 1993 while Sabbagh provides a textual analysis of ÒWomenÕs Declaration of Principles,Ó a womenÕs declaration of rights which the proponents hope will be incorporated into the constitution of a future Palestinian State.