Three Mothers, Three Daughters

Abstract

In Three Mothers; Three Daughters: Palestinian Women's Stories, RafiqaOthman and Michael Gorkin present six remarkable life narratives fromPalestinian women living in the Occupied Territories and Israel. By selectingthree mother/daughter pairs from very different social and political circumstances,they represent, in dramatic microcosm, many elements of thetwentieth-century Palestinian experience. Moreover, these stories have astunning universal appeal, transcending their specific national context byrevealing complicated issues of gender and generational relations familiarthroughout the world. In this way, Gorkin and Othman have crafted an oralhistory that is both specific to - and transcendent of - Palestine.From the outset of their collaboration, Gorkin and Othman wrestledwith their complex personal positions and relationship, and used their prefaceand epilogue to frame their study in these terms. Gorkin is an AmericanJew living in Israel; Othman is a Palestinian Muslim from Abu Ghosh, theonly Arab village on the Israeli side of the Green Line in the Jerusalem areato survive the 1948-49 war. Their collaboration was not only controversialbecause one is a Jew and the other an Arab, but also because being anunmarried woman, Othman confronted the issue of 'ayb (shame) fallingupon her family if society misjudged her association with her male collalrorator. Moreover, several of the project's six informants would not speakwith Gorkin because he is a man.Thus, Othman juggled a difficult problem that often faces scholars conductinganthropological research within their societies: a complicated statusas both an insider and an outsider. It is to her credit that she deals directlywith this issue. Othman points out her position as a confidante at times, anddoes not hesitate to draw on a common sense of "sisterhood" to relate towomen's struggles. However, as an Arab living inside Israel, her ability tounderstand the experiences of Palestinians living under the occupation is difficultand painful. She reminds the reader that Palestinian experiences are asdiverse as any others, and that at times she is as much a political outsider asGorkin.The three mother/daughter pairs come from a relatively small territorialradius. However, the historical events and the borders emerging from ...