essay
Palestinian-American Muslim women: living on the margins of two worlds
Muslim families in North America • Edmonton, Alta., Canada • Published In 1991 • Pages: 282-308, 333-357
By: Cainkar, Louise.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of the difficult experience of growing up female for Palestinian-American women, whose lives were severely constrained by traditional sexual mores and gender ideals. It is based on participant observation, informal interviews, and formal open-ended life history interviews with 22 Palestinian-American women born between 1943 and 1961. Beginning with grade school, Palestinian-American women have had to contend with racial prejudice in school and gender inequality in the home, where they had to serve on their brothers. As teenagers their lives were even more constricted by traditional proscriptions on sexual behavior, to the point where they had to sever their relationship with their non-Arab girlfriends. As young adults they were forced into arranged marriages. College for some of the women offerred a respite and an opportunity to refashion their ethnic and gender identities, but at the cost of losing their marital appeal to tradition-bound Palestine-American men. Cainkar argues that the experience of Palestine-American women compared to Palestine women has been one of greater gender inequality, because the generally freer American society was closed to women, whereas men were free to participate in it.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Gender status
- Ethnic stratification
- Regulation of marriage
- Arranging a marriage
- Status of adolescents
- Adolescent activities
- Students
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Arab Americans
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Sociologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1998
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1982-1985
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1943-1985
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Chicago, Ill., United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Louise Cainkar
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 333-357)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 92129976
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Arab Americans