Umm Mahmud’s experience in the patriarchal society

The forces that occurred in the family are seen as the patriarchy rules. It was done by the fathers as their way to protect the authority of men. In Palestinian society, consequently, many Palestinian men tend to believe that any threat to their inherent male superiority or to what they and society perceive as male privileges justifies the use force Dobash et all, 1992:16. Another occurrence of patriarchal practice was about their indecisiveness to tell what they want as women directly. In that case, girls at that time were so obedient and afraid of their father. “My mother did not want to get married, but back then you married when your father told you to marry. You did not dare say anything.” “I was sixteen years old. My father said “Yes”, “Khalas”, you’re marrying this one.” “But back then I had no choice. My father decided and I had to go along.” Gorkin, 1996:46-48 Regarding to that situation, the patriarchal rules occurred in the family. The girls or the women at that time do what their father wants to do. Umm Abdullah in this context also said that God has brought the Palestinians to their fate now because of all the ways they have treated their women. Furthermore, she stated that a woman had a hard life in those days. They worked in the house and the fields and they had to take care of their children. She also said there were no mercy for women when they were pregnant. They had to go to the market carrying baskets on their head and in their hands, all while they were pregnant. They would work in the fields too, right until they gave birth. According to Umm Abdullah, Palestinian men made women work all day in the fields, made them carry heavy loads on their heads, and gave them only a few hours rest each night. From her perspective, we can see that men have absolute dominance over women, things that had happened for a long time there. This case is similar to what Viola Klein stated in The historical background of feminism. The endeavour to reinstate women in the economic process, on the one hand, and to restrict the size of families, on the other, has continued from then on up to the present day. At all times, however, the common characteristic of women’s work, as contrasted with men’s, was, first of all, that it was subsidiary i.e., that it involved assisting the men of the family fathers, husbands, brothers rather than independent; secondly, and closely connected with this fact, that it was paid at a lower rate, if it received any payment at all, and was not included in the family wage; and, thirdly, that it was mostly unskilled. Klein, 1973:521

3. Umm Khaled’s experience in the patriarchal society

Umm Khaled, at seventy-two years old, is one of who lived through this recent turbulent period in the history of Abu Ghosh. It is here, as a citizen of Israel, that she raised her family of sixteen children. Today all of these children are grown, and most continue to live in the village. Umm Khaled’s childhood was spent in Jerusalem, where he moved after her father became a policeman. In Jerusalem, she had a very good style of living. Her father got a big salary, five pounds a month. With that money, her father sends her old brother to school, best of the best school. “My older brothers, Muhammad and Amir, went to school. The best of the best. My father spared no expense to educate them. Muhammad learned to read and write in Arabic and English, he was brilliant. And Amir too, he was clever in Arabic calligraphy. For my brothers, my father was willing to spend on education. For me and my sisters, no.” Gorkin, 1996:64 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI That situation leads to gender stereotypes. Eagly Steffen 1984 states that gender stereotypes affect educational opportunities. Because boys are assumed to be more active and aggressive, they typically are educated to assume the leadership roles in society, whether those roles are in business or politics. The education of boys, therefore, is given higher priority than the education of girls, as can be seen in the statistics on school attendance in developing countries. Boys often receive encouragement and training to pursue the higher-paying and higher- status jobs in a c ulture because boys are seen as both more “naturally” inclined to such work as well as the more likely breadwinner in a family. In that case, the father’s rule as a form of patriarchy occurred clearly towards her life. It is when her father chose to take her out from school and bought them a sewing machine. Her father must be sure that his intention was about asking her daughters to do household chores like sewing ripped-clothes. “I went a year to a school near al-Aqsa Mosque. I learned to read a little, but I don’t remember now. My father took me out of school after the first grade. He bought me a sewing machine. How did I feel about that? Well, it wasn’t my fate to learn. Back then they didn’t encourage girls to learn, not like today.” Gorkin, 1996:64 H er feeling towards her father’s action was about her disbelief that her father only let her to study in one year. Referring to her feeling andor emotions as form of inner thoughts, we can know that the character, in here Umm Khaled, was so deeply hurt, a typical calm woman, who barely spoke her minds out, and a passive person who only receiving that kind of situation.