Women, Water and Memory: Recasting Lives in PalestineThis book tells a different story about water. Against the backdrop of the end of the Ottoman Empire to the Palestinian uprisings, old Palestinian women recount life before and after piped water. While talking about fetching and managing household water, women also talked about being women. Women, Water and Memory speaks of many different lives. We hear stories about women's own strength and beauty, and about the woman who married a man whose ugly face made her sick. While one woman married the man “she cared for”, another was relieved that her husband died when she was too old to be forced to remarry. We learn about the joy they feel each time they dance at a wedding, the sheer satisfaction of lighting a cigarette, the loyalty and shared despair towards families with members in prison, and about the tears of sorrow at each death and the delight at each birth. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Women and Their Stories | 11 |
PART ONE ABOUT MUSHARAFAH | 35 |
Chapter One Musharafah | 37 |
Chapter Two PalestineA Contested Site | 57 |
PART TWO LIFE WORLDS | 67 |
Chapter Three Women Water and Memory | 69 |
Chapter Four Being in the World | 105 |
Chapter Five Women and Places Outside | 125 |
Chapter Six Telling Stories | 139 |
Conclusion and Further Reflections | 151 |
163 | |
169 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abu Jihad adat and taqalid Arab arafah Awad Barth Bedouin boys British chores concerned constructed culture Dalal Darwiish daughter embroidery eswah everyday explained father Fathi fetching water feudal fieldwork figs Ganzuri Gaza girls Granqvist groom hamulah happy heard heritage Hilma Granqvist household husband intifadah Islam Israel Israeli jarra jebel Jewish Jews khala Khaled Khalidi land landscape looking marriage married memory Middle East mother mother-in-law Muhammad Muslim narratives nasab never old village old women olive trees Omar Ottoman Palestine Palestinian peasants past peasants people’s piped water political Qays Ramallah Rashid Khalidi remember Sahlins Samiha Sayigh social society of women sons speak stones stories taboun talk tell things traditional Um Fathi Um Khaled Um Muhammad village of Musharafah Wagiha walk water spring wedding woman women in Musharafah women told women’s lives write Zeit