Palestinian Women: Rising Above Limitations, Expectations & Conditions
BACKGROUND
In 2011, a sponsorship during graduate school offered Sadiqua Hamdan the opportunity to conduct face-�to-�-face interviews with Palestinian women ages eighteen to ninety about their lives, relationships, education, role models, religion, perceptions regarding their societies, and views of the West. She spent three weeks in the West Bank, conducted fifty-�-five interviews, and drank at least two hundred cups of mint tea. This research was the foundation for her master�s thesis, The Evolution of a Palestinian Woman, from 1940 until Now.
It is Sadiqua's belief that Western societies normally hear about Palestinian women in the context of religious oppression, conflict, displacement and domestic violence. While it is true that women all over the world have experienced violence, she wanted to present a full story narrative of Palestinian women's lifestyles and opinions through their own eyes.
After graduation, the research was edited with the goal of reaching a wider audience. Sadiqua's hope is that Palestinian Women: Rising Above Limitations, Expectations & Conditions empowers women all over the world to take inventory of their lives and find ways in which to create more harmony and balance with themselves and others, within their societies and around the world.
BOOK EXCERPTS
Education
** Keep in mind that 59% of today�s Palestinian college graduates in the West Bank are females.
One day I received a lead to interview a seventy-one-year-old mother of eight children, Um Basil. I sat in her guest room with my notebook and digital recorder in hand, patiently waiting for her to finish her noontime prayer. She turned out to be a very direct and has a worldly sense to her. She offered me hot tea with mint before we began. A mother to eight children, she understands life has handed her more opportunities than women received in her mother�s generation. She calmly explains:
Women my mom�s age did not go to school. They received zero education�more like �zero minus.� Marriage was more important, and parents may not have been able to buy notebooks and books to be able to send their kids to school. Villages only offered education to a certain level (fourth, fifth, sixth grade), and if you wanted a higher education, you had to send your kids to a city like Ramallah or al-Bireh. Men could not afford to send all their kids to the city every day. Women did not traditionally leave the house, so it was hard for them to let their daughters travel alone to a city. There was also no point in sending girls to school, because there were no jobs that supported women in the marketplace. It was also shameful for women to work outside the house.
Religion
Asking a practicing Palestinian Muslim or Christian whether religion is important is like asking whether two eyes are better than one. �It�s how we�re born,� says Nadia, a 53 year-old widowed mother of nine children. Reema, a college educated sixty-two-year-old mother of four, gives her interpretation:
People don�t understand religion. I practice Islam, which is very similar to Christianity. Religion taught us how to greet each other, respect each other, treat each other in marriage, et cetera, and the reason why Americans and the United States hold on to the things that aren�t true in Islam is because they can�t find someone following it properly to correctly explain it to them. If we [the Palestinians] aren�t living it right in our country, how do we expect Americans to respect us? They see that our customs are wrong and believe our religion is wrong, when it is the way we [Palestinians] treat each other as wrong, not the religion itself.
If you want someone to respect your religion, then you [need to] respect the religion.
Not all Palestinians in this study agree. Nine out of the fifty-five women do not believe a person needs to be religious to have faith, including Samira. She is a slender nineteen-year-old woman with dark eyes and long black hair. She grew up covering her hair with a mandeela but decided to uncover her hair after she got married. Her husband has no opinion on the subject and loves her for who she is. Samira, like many young women, feels more comfortable wearing Western-style clothes: jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers. She does not believe religion is the most important thing in life. Samira further explains:
It�s not about duty; it�s what calls you from within. Prayer can be a very personal thing without showing that you�re doing it in front of the world. But some people are afraid and publicly enforce hijab. If you are a good Muslim that believes in God, then there is no reason to fear people.
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In 2011, a sponsorship during graduate school offered Sadiqua Hamdan the opportunity to conduct face-�to-�-face interviews with Palestinian women ages eighteen to ninety about their lives, relationships, education, role models, religion, perceptions regarding their societies, and views of the West. She spent three weeks in the West Bank, conducted fifty-�-five interviews, and drank at least two hundred cups of mint tea. This research was the foundation for her master�s thesis, The Evolution of a Palestinian Woman, from 1940 until Now.
It is Sadiqua's belief that Western societies normally hear about Palestinian women in the context of religious oppression, conflict, displacement and domestic violence. While it is true that women all over the world have experienced violence, she wanted to present a full story narrative of Palestinian women's lifestyles and opinions through their own eyes.
After graduation, the research was edited with the goal of reaching a wider audience. Sadiqua's hope is that Palestinian Women: Rising Above Limitations, Expectations & Conditions empowers women all over the world to take inventory of their lives and find ways in which to create more harmony and balance with themselves and others, within their societies and around the world.
BOOK EXCERPTS
Education
** Keep in mind that 59% of today�s Palestinian college graduates in the West Bank are females.
One day I received a lead to interview a seventy-one-year-old mother of eight children, Um Basil. I sat in her guest room with my notebook and digital recorder in hand, patiently waiting for her to finish her noontime prayer. She turned out to be a very direct and has a worldly sense to her. She offered me hot tea with mint before we began. A mother to eight children, she understands life has handed her more opportunities than women received in her mother�s generation. She calmly explains:
Women my mom�s age did not go to school. They received zero education�more like �zero minus.� Marriage was more important, and parents may not have been able to buy notebooks and books to be able to send their kids to school. Villages only offered education to a certain level (fourth, fifth, sixth grade), and if you wanted a higher education, you had to send your kids to a city like Ramallah or al-Bireh. Men could not afford to send all their kids to the city every day. Women did not traditionally leave the house, so it was hard for them to let their daughters travel alone to a city. There was also no point in sending girls to school, because there were no jobs that supported women in the marketplace. It was also shameful for women to work outside the house.
Religion
Asking a practicing Palestinian Muslim or Christian whether religion is important is like asking whether two eyes are better than one. �It�s how we�re born,� says Nadia, a 53 year-old widowed mother of nine children. Reema, a college educated sixty-two-year-old mother of four, gives her interpretation:
People don�t understand religion. I practice Islam, which is very similar to Christianity. Religion taught us how to greet each other, respect each other, treat each other in marriage, et cetera, and the reason why Americans and the United States hold on to the things that aren�t true in Islam is because they can�t find someone following it properly to correctly explain it to them. If we [the Palestinians] aren�t living it right in our country, how do we expect Americans to respect us? They see that our customs are wrong and believe our religion is wrong, when it is the way we [Palestinians] treat each other as wrong, not the religion itself.
If you want someone to respect your religion, then you [need to] respect the religion.
Not all Palestinians in this study agree. Nine out of the fifty-five women do not believe a person needs to be religious to have faith, including Samira. She is a slender nineteen-year-old woman with dark eyes and long black hair. She grew up covering her hair with a mandeela but decided to uncover her hair after she got married. Her husband has no opinion on the subject and loves her for who she is. Samira, like many young women, feels more comfortable wearing Western-style clothes: jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers. She does not believe religion is the most important thing in life. Samira further explains:
It�s not about duty; it�s what calls you from within. Prayer can be a very personal thing without showing that you�re doing it in front of the world. But some people are afraid and publicly enforce hijab. If you are a good Muslim that believes in God, then there is no reason to fear people.
Palestinian Women: Rising Above Limitations, Expectations & Conditions
BACKGROUND
In 2011, a sponsorship during graduate school offered Sadiqua Hamdan the opportunity to conduct face-�to-�-face interviews with Palestinian women ages eighteen to ninety about their lives, relationships, education, role models, religion, perceptions regarding their societies, and views of the West. She spent three weeks in the West Bank, conducted fifty-�-five interviews, and drank at least two hundred cups of mint tea. This research was the foundation for her master�s thesis, The Evolution of a Palestinian Woman, from 1940 until Now.
It is Sadiqua's belief that Western societies normally hear about Palestinian women in the context of religious oppression, conflict, displacement and domestic violence. While it is true that women all over the world have experienced violence, she wanted to present a full story narrative of Palestinian women's lifestyles and opinions through their own eyes.
After graduation, the research was edited with the goal of reaching a wider audience. Sadiqua's hope is that Palestinian Women: Rising Above Limitations, Expectations & Conditions empowers women all over the world to take inventory of their lives and find ways in which to create more harmony and balance with themselves and others, within their societies and around the world.
BOOK EXCERPTS
Education
** Keep in mind that 59% of today�s Palestinian college graduates in the West Bank are females.
One day I received a lead to interview a seventy-one-year-old mother of eight children, Um Basil. I sat in her guest room with my notebook and digital recorder in hand, patiently waiting for her to finish her noontime prayer. She turned out to be a very direct and has a worldly sense to her. She offered me hot tea with mint before we began. A mother to eight children, she understands life has handed her more opportunities than women received in her mother�s generation. She calmly explains:
Women my mom�s age did not go to school. They received zero education�more like �zero minus.� Marriage was more important, and parents may not have been able to buy notebooks and books to be able to send their kids to school. Villages only offered education to a certain level (fourth, fifth, sixth grade), and if you wanted a higher education, you had to send your kids to a city like Ramallah or al-Bireh. Men could not afford to send all their kids to the city every day. Women did not traditionally leave the house, so it was hard for them to let their daughters travel alone to a city. There was also no point in sending girls to school, because there were no jobs that supported women in the marketplace. It was also shameful for women to work outside the house.
Religion
Asking a practicing Palestinian Muslim or Christian whether religion is important is like asking whether two eyes are better than one. �It�s how we�re born,� says Nadia, a 53 year-old widowed mother of nine children. Reema, a college educated sixty-two-year-old mother of four, gives her interpretation:
People don�t understand religion. I practice Islam, which is very similar to Christianity. Religion taught us how to greet each other, respect each other, treat each other in marriage, et cetera, and the reason why Americans and the United States hold on to the things that aren�t true in Islam is because they can�t find someone following it properly to correctly explain it to them. If we [the Palestinians] aren�t living it right in our country, how do we expect Americans to respect us? They see that our customs are wrong and believe our religion is wrong, when it is the way we [Palestinians] treat each other as wrong, not the religion itself.
If you want someone to respect your religion, then you [need to] respect the religion.
Not all Palestinians in this study agree. Nine out of the fifty-five women do not believe a person needs to be religious to have faith, including Samira. She is a slender nineteen-year-old woman with dark eyes and long black hair. She grew up covering her hair with a mandeela but decided to uncover her hair after she got married. Her husband has no opinion on the subject and loves her for who she is. Samira, like many young women, feels more comfortable wearing Western-style clothes: jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers. She does not believe religion is the most important thing in life. Samira further explains:
It�s not about duty; it�s what calls you from within. Prayer can be a very personal thing without showing that you�re doing it in front of the world. But some people are afraid and publicly enforce hijab. If you are a good Muslim that believes in God, then there is no reason to fear people.
In 2011, a sponsorship during graduate school offered Sadiqua Hamdan the opportunity to conduct face-�to-�-face interviews with Palestinian women ages eighteen to ninety about their lives, relationships, education, role models, religion, perceptions regarding their societies, and views of the West. She spent three weeks in the West Bank, conducted fifty-�-five interviews, and drank at least two hundred cups of mint tea. This research was the foundation for her master�s thesis, The Evolution of a Palestinian Woman, from 1940 until Now.
It is Sadiqua's belief that Western societies normally hear about Palestinian women in the context of religious oppression, conflict, displacement and domestic violence. While it is true that women all over the world have experienced violence, she wanted to present a full story narrative of Palestinian women's lifestyles and opinions through their own eyes.
After graduation, the research was edited with the goal of reaching a wider audience. Sadiqua's hope is that Palestinian Women: Rising Above Limitations, Expectations & Conditions empowers women all over the world to take inventory of their lives and find ways in which to create more harmony and balance with themselves and others, within their societies and around the world.
BOOK EXCERPTS
Education
** Keep in mind that 59% of today�s Palestinian college graduates in the West Bank are females.
One day I received a lead to interview a seventy-one-year-old mother of eight children, Um Basil. I sat in her guest room with my notebook and digital recorder in hand, patiently waiting for her to finish her noontime prayer. She turned out to be a very direct and has a worldly sense to her. She offered me hot tea with mint before we began. A mother to eight children, she understands life has handed her more opportunities than women received in her mother�s generation. She calmly explains:
Women my mom�s age did not go to school. They received zero education�more like �zero minus.� Marriage was more important, and parents may not have been able to buy notebooks and books to be able to send their kids to school. Villages only offered education to a certain level (fourth, fifth, sixth grade), and if you wanted a higher education, you had to send your kids to a city like Ramallah or al-Bireh. Men could not afford to send all their kids to the city every day. Women did not traditionally leave the house, so it was hard for them to let their daughters travel alone to a city. There was also no point in sending girls to school, because there were no jobs that supported women in the marketplace. It was also shameful for women to work outside the house.
Religion
Asking a practicing Palestinian Muslim or Christian whether religion is important is like asking whether two eyes are better than one. �It�s how we�re born,� says Nadia, a 53 year-old widowed mother of nine children. Reema, a college educated sixty-two-year-old mother of four, gives her interpretation:
People don�t understand religion. I practice Islam, which is very similar to Christianity. Religion taught us how to greet each other, respect each other, treat each other in marriage, et cetera, and the reason why Americans and the United States hold on to the things that aren�t true in Islam is because they can�t find someone following it properly to correctly explain it to them. If we [the Palestinians] aren�t living it right in our country, how do we expect Americans to respect us? They see that our customs are wrong and believe our religion is wrong, when it is the way we [Palestinians] treat each other as wrong, not the religion itself.
If you want someone to respect your religion, then you [need to] respect the religion.
Not all Palestinians in this study agree. Nine out of the fifty-five women do not believe a person needs to be religious to have faith, including Samira. She is a slender nineteen-year-old woman with dark eyes and long black hair. She grew up covering her hair with a mandeela but decided to uncover her hair after she got married. Her husband has no opinion on the subject and loves her for who she is. Samira, like many young women, feels more comfortable wearing Western-style clothes: jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers. She does not believe religion is the most important thing in life. Samira further explains:
It�s not about duty; it�s what calls you from within. Prayer can be a very personal thing without showing that you�re doing it in front of the world. But some people are afraid and publicly enforce hijab. If you are a good Muslim that believes in God, then there is no reason to fear people.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940016435169 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Sharp Thinking Communications |
| Publication date: | 06/05/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 180 |
| File size: | 319 KB |
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