Three Mothers, Three Daughters Palestinian Women's Stories by Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman (New York: Other Press; 2000. 244 pages.)

Abstract

In Three Mothers; Three Daughters: Palestinian Women's Stories, Rafiqa
Othman and Michael Gorkin present six remarkable life narratives from
Palestinian women living in the Occupied Territories and Israel. By selecting
three mother/daughter pairs from very different social and political circumstances,
they represent, in dramatic microcosm, many elements of the
twentieth-century Palestinian experience. Moreover, these stories have a
stunning universal appeal, transcending their specific national context by
revealing complicated issues of gender and generational relations familiar
throughout the world. In this way, Gorkin and Othman have crafted an oral
history that is both specific to - and transcendent of - Palestine.
From the outset of their collaboration, Gorkin and Othman wrestled
with their complex personal positions and relationship, and used their preface
and epilogue to frame their study in these terms. Gorkin is an American
Jew living in Israel; Othman is a Palestinian Muslim from Abu Ghosh, the
only Arab village on the Israeli side of the Green Line in the Jerusalem area
to survive the 1948-49 war. Their collaboration was not only controversial
because one is a Jew and the other an Arab, but also because being an
unmarried woman, Othman confronted the issue of 'ayb (shame) falling
upon her family if society misjudged her association with her male collalr
orator. Moreover, several of the project's six informants would not speak
with Gorkin because he is a man.
Thus, Othman juggled a difficult problem that often faces scholars conducting
anthropological research within their societies: a complicated status
as both an insider and an outsider. It is to her credit that she deals directly
with this issue. Othman points out her position as a confidante at times, and
does not hesitate to draw on a common sense of "sisterhood" to relate to
women's struggles. However, as an Arab living inside Israel, her ability to
understand the experiences of Palestinians living under the occupation is difficult
and painful. She reminds the reader that Palestinian experiences are as
diverse as any others, and that at times she is as much a political outsider as
Gorkin.
The three mother/daughter pairs come from a relatively small territorial
radius. However, the historical events and the borders emerging from ...