Women, Water and Memory: Recasting Lives in Palestine (Women and Gender, the Middle East and the Islamic World, 6)

This 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. -- Back cover. Contents 5 Glossary of Arabic Terms Often Used by the Women or Discussed in the Text 7 List of Illustrations 9 Acknowledgements 11 Fetching Water 15 Introduction 17 Being in the World 18 Households 20 Society of Women 22 The Women and Their Stories 27 Things Have Been Said Before 33 Recasting Lives 37 What They Remember 39 Crossing Checkpoints 43 When They Stare Back at You 44 Outline and Rationale 47 PART ONE ABOUT MUSHARAFAH 51 Chapter One Musharafah 53 Countryside 54 Cast in Stone 57 New Homes 60 Red Village 62 Chapter Two Palestine—A Contested Site 73 PART TWO LIFE WORLDS 83 Chapter Three Women, Water and Memory 85 Um Muhammad 85 Um Qays 94 Um Fathi 99 Um Khaled 104 Um Jihad 110 Um Ali 113 Samiha 116 Um Ibrahim 117 Chapter Four Being in the World 121 Daughters, Wives, Mothers, Grandmothers 122 "This is the Way We Do Things Here" 124 Family 130 To Know God 132 Disruptions 139 Chapter Five Women and Places Outside 141 Clean Water is a Good Thing 141 Place, History, Tradition 144 Leaving the Spring 145 Male and Female Water 149 Stories about Stones 150 Chapter Six Telling Stories 155 Stories 156 Repositories of Memory 159 Life Worlds 163 Conclusion and Further Reflections 167 Bibliography 179 Index 185 adat Customs asabiyya Blood relatives ayn Water spring Baraka Blessing Calla Large kerosene can Dar Home, household Din Religion eswah Support or patronage Fi sabil Allah For the love of god Hamulah (pl Hamayel) Lineage or clan Khala Open landscape Iqtaxi Feudal Jarra Large clay water jar Jebel Mountain Malli water Maqam Shrine Nabiyya Used to refer to water's goodness Nasab Relatives (sometimes it was inter-changed With {asabiyya) Taboun Outside stone oven Taqalid Traditions Tayyib Used to describe fertile soil Zulm Injustice. Tells a different story about water. Against the backdrop of the end of the Ottoman Empire to Palestinian uprisings, this title features old Palestinian women who recount life before and after piped water. While talking about fetching and managing household water women talked about being women