להגן על הנשים או להגן על המדינה? פוליגמיה וביטחון אונטולוגי בישראל

Contemporary democratic regimes prompted by international organizations such as the OECD and the UN define the commitment to gender equality,the promotion and protection of equal rights for women, and the ability to protect women from violence as one of the hallmarks of political and economic development. Concomitant to this development, however,increasingly discourse surrounding women’s equality, rights and protection, has become implicated in discussions surrounding immigration, minority cultures and generalized debates surrounding cultural and religious values as well as cultural belonging. This has complicated the discourse raising fundamental questions regarding both the nature of gender equality, and the role of the state in guaranteeing equality and security.In this paper we critically explore the role of the state in guaranteeing the protection of women and investigate the wider contexts in which states comes to formulate notions of gender security and insecurity. To this end we engage with the concept of ontological (in)security focusing on its gendered dimensions. We ask whether, and if so – in what ways, does the safeguarding of women’s rights and the protection of women from violence factor in to state narratives of ontological security.We explore these wider issues in the empirical context of Israel’s policy towards polygamy in a comparative perspective. Based on a gendered analysis of policy and women’s narratives we suggest that gaps between the state level and the vernacular are an unavoidable component of ontological security and attest to the fluid and contingent nature of state formulated notions of security. We further demonstrate in our analysis the deep and complex connections that exist between conceptions of gender,and issues related to national identity and religion as they are expressed and represented in the political sphere.