Comparative lives

Three Mothers, Three Daughters: Palestinian Women's Stories

by Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman

Reviewed by Sally Bland

Originally published by the University of California Press in 1996, this book seems not to have received the attention it merits. Hopefully, the more recent softcover edition will be more widely circulated, for "Three Mothers, Three Daughters" is interesting and unique on several counts.

The interviews that form the substance of the book were conducted by a research team composed of a Jewish man and an Arab woman, both resident in Israel. This, in itself, is a rather unusual phenomenon, and not without pitfalls, as the two authors relate in the preface and epilogue.

More important is the actual subject matter: interviews with three mothers and their daughters that give a unique insight into the lives of Palestinian women who were, until recently, "almost forgotten in Middle East historic accounts".

While the first Intifada inspired more writing about Palestinian women, this was most often in a political context. Valuable as it was, in the authors' view, "a strange paradox has occurred: in the conscientious effort to put these women on the social and political map, the personal texture of individual lives has been lost". (p. 1)

In order to make the individual voices of Palestinian women more distinct, Gorkin and Othman adopted a personal, anthropological approach, undertaking extensive interviews in the spirit of oral history, whereby the women subjects related their life stories. As stated on the cover, the book shows "how the lives of individuals merge to form the story of a people".

The choice of three mother-daughter pairs allows for inter-generational comparison and actually reflects six different experiences, even though all the women interviewed live under Israeli rule and within close proximity to Jerusalem.

Umm Mahmud and her daughter Marianne live in East Jerusalem, with a view of the Old City on one side and Jewish settlements on the other. Umm Abdullah and her daughter Samira live Aida Camp, just across the green line from Al Qabu village, razed to the ground in 1948, where Umm Abdullah was born, but which Samira has only visited. Umm Khaled and her daughter Leila live in Abu Ghosh, the only Arab village to survive when Israel conquered the area in 1948.

So as each woman tells her story - growing up, marriage, having children and so on - she illuminates a different window on Palestine, the 1948 and 1967 wars, the occupation, relations with Israelis, and the other events and developments.

The differences across generations are particularly striking: all three mothers interviewed are illiterate, while two of the daughters attended college and the third finished ninth grade. In the mothers' generation, women had little say about whom they married, whereas the daughters do have a say in the matter. All the mothers have worked exclusively as housewives, while two of the three daughters have been employed outside their homes.

There are also degrees of difference in social attitudes between the mothers and daughters, but also much convergence.

The life stories are rich in details about Palestinian culture and social life, from pre-1948 village society to contemporary life in a refugee camp.

Although the interviewers focused on the personal experience of these women, politics shines through. This is partially because Palestinians' lives have been irrevocably politicised by virtue of the Israeli policies of land confiscation, expulsion and discrimination. War and occupation have impacted on all the women who were interviewed, even those who express the wish to avoid politics, either because they claim not to understand it or because it only brings trouble in their eyes.

In contrast, there is the story of Samira, who has been a political activist since she was a teenager and like her activist husband, imprisoned by the Israelis several times. Her mother, Umm Abdullah, was also drawn into the struggle, boldly confronting Israeli soldiers verbally in the streets in order to protect young people from arrest, though she insists she would never be able to attend regular political meetings. The interesting thing is that, compared to the other two mother-daughter pairs, Samira and Umm Abdullah seem to have the most open lines of communication, the most respect for each other's views, and the most relaxed and trusting relationship.

The reader is left to judge whether this can be explained by their shared commitment to their people's cause or by personal factors alone.

This article was published in the Monday, January 10, 2005 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.