Three Mothers, Three Daughters: Palestinian Women's Stories

By Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman

Book Overview

This remarkable collection of oral histories from six Palestinian women, three mothers and three of their daughters, affords an unparalleled view into the daily lives of women who have lived, and continue to live, through a turbulent and rapidly changing era. In recording these stories, Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman have preserved each woman's distinctive voice, capturing in vivid and moving detail a broad range of experience--everything from recollections of native villages to an account of incarceration as a political prisoner. Highly personal events such as courting, marriage, and childbirth are interwoven with memories of upheavals such as the wars of 1948 and 1967. The women speak with surprising candor about conflicts between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, men and women, Arabs and Jews. These beautifully written narratives bear witness to the power of Palestinian culture in sustaining the often difficult lives of women. The book also provides brilliant testimony to the experience of living in the midst of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Michael Gorkin, a Jewish-American psychologist who lives in Israel, and Rafiqa Othman, a Palestinian special education teacher, have collected the narratives from different cultural and geographic locations within the boundaries of historical Palestine--including East Jerusalem, a refugee camp on the West Bank, and an Arab village within Israel. With surprising intimacy, the mothers and daughters discuss their views about sex, marriage, and child-rearing; ideas about themselves and their relationship to God, their families, and their homeland; and questions of shame, devotion, freedom, and honor.

In the preface, introduction and epilogue, Gorkin and Othman frame the stories and describe the project. The linked stories of mothers and daughters attest to the profound changes that have occurred in the lives of Palestinian women during this century--in the areas of education, work, political involvement and personal freedom. In addition to delineating this astonishing historical and cultural transformation, the stories create lasting images of the people these women have loved and hated, the pleasures they have enjoyed, the dangers they have survived, and the hopes they continue to cherish.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520203291
• ISBN13: 9780520203297
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 261 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A Must Read!

In the United States and around the world the thinking about Israel and Palestines is based on stereotypes, and on the people who "make the news". Much of it feeds fears and de-humanizes people on both sides who are striving to lead normal lives. Similarly, discussions of women in development tend to forget that women live, work, interact with men - in their families and their communities. For anyone interested in the real life situations of Palestinians, including women, this is a really wonderful book. Through the stories of 3 pairs of mothers and daughters, the book introduces the reader to experiences in the last 50 years as well as to the current situation. I visited Palestine (Ramallah only) in November 2005 - and was looking for some introduction to Palestinians and to gender issues. This book was a phenomenal asset. And while I failed to complete the book while I was there, I have eagerly continued reading it - right up to the last page. It is extremely "readable". I encourage anyone interested in the region, or interested in gender and social change, to read this book. I am buying several copies to give to friends.

Women Know, but Societies Deny

Even this book had been published in 1996 but women still suffer from many society diseases which our two authers try to bring into the surface. The book also give us a chance to observe how the Palestiniane women are aware of the whole situation, even the illiterate mothers. Authers are too smart to choose these women from different villages and different style of thinking. It's a book addresses the foreign reader firstly, who knows little about this society. It is also send a message to all societies to be careful, because these women are not only live in Palestine, but all societies