The role of education in Palestinian women in Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman`s three mothers, three daughters.

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ABSTRACT

Daniel Niko. The Role of Education on Palestinian Women in Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman’s Three Mothers, Three Daughters. Yogyakarta, Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2015. Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman’sThree Mothers, Three Daughters tells about two different eras, that is, the older and younger generation. The older generation, represented by the three mothers, is a representation of patriarchal domination that limits their opportunity to get an education. On the other hand, the younger generation, that means the three daughters show us another side of Palestinian women who are independent and can contribute to the palestinian society.

In this novel, especially in the younger generation, women are able to get more freedom in their life than their mother’s generation. Women have opportunities to get education and get their degree also, they work and make difference in the society through Women’ Committee for Social Work andPolitical Movement, and make important decision to live independently as modern educated women.Those role of education prove that the daughter’s life are better than their mother’s.

There are two problems that have to be answered in order to see the role of education in changing Palestinian women’ life. The problems are (1) How did patriarchy limit the mothers’ opportunity to get education as depicted in Three Mothers, Three Daughters? (2) How did education change the daughters’ life as depicted in Three Mothers, Three Daughters?

The method of the study that is used is library research. The primary source of the study is the novel Three Mothers, Three Daughters while the secondary sources are the books that are related to the study and also the internet sources. Feminist approach is used in the study discusses women who are under patriarchy and it limits their opportunity to get education and women’ life who get education and change their life and society.

The findings of the study show that women who had no opportunities to get education have a less meaningful life than educated women. Firstly, the researcher explained the patriarchal limitations that limits the three mothers’ opportunity to get formal education. Secondly, the researcher analysesthe daughters’ life who get formal education and how they struggle to change the image of women. From here, the researcher conclude that education have an important role towards women’s life.

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ABSTRAK

Daniel Niko. The Role of Education on Palestinian Women in Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman’s Three Mothers, Three Daughters. Yogyakarta, Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakutas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.

Novel Three Mothers, Three Daughters karya Michael Gorkin dan Rafiqa Othman menceritakan tentang dua jaman yang berbeda yaitu generasi tua dan generasi muda. Generasi tua, diwakili oleh para ibu, merupakan representasi dari dominasi patriarkal yang membatasi kesempatan mereka mengenyam pendidikan. Sementara itu, pada generasi muda, diwakili oleh para anak perempuan, memperlihatkan sisi lain dari wanita palestina yang mandiri dan mampu berkontribusi untuk masyarakat Palestina. Fenomena dari masyarakat patriarkal Palestina yang konservatif bisa dilihat dalam novel Three Mothers, Three Daughters karya Michael Gorkin dan Rafiqa Othman.

Di novel ini, khususnya pada generasi anak, perempuan telah mendapatkan kebebasan yang lebih daripada generasi ibu mereka. Perempuan berpeluang untuk mendapatkan pendidikan dan gelar, mereka bekerja dan membuat perbedaan di masyarakat melewati komunitas pekerja sosial wanita dan pergerakan politik, dan dan membuat keputusan penting untuk hidup mandiri sebagai perempuan modern yang berpendidikan. Ada dua pertanyaan yang perlu dijawab untuk melihat peran pendidikan dalam mengubah kehidupan perempuan Palestina. Pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut ialah (1) Bagaimana patriarki membatasi peluang sang ibu untuk mendapatkan pendidikan seperti digambarkan di Three Mothers, Three Daughters? (2) Bagaimana pendidikan mengubah kehidupan para anak seperti digambarkan di Three Mothers, Three Daughters??

Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah riset perspustakaan. Bahan utamanya adalah novel Three Mothers, Three Daughters sedangkan bahan kedua adalah buku-buku yang berhubungan dengan penelitian dan juga internet. Pendekatan feminis diterapkan di penelitian ini karena studi ini mempelajari perempuan di masa patriarki dan hal itu membatasi peluang mereka untuk mengenyam pendidikan dan mengubah hidup mereka.

Hasil dari studi ini membuktikan bahwa hidup perempuan yang tidak berpendidikan lebih tidak berarti daripada perempuan berpendidikan. Pertama, penulis menjelaskan batasan era patriarki yang membatasi peluang ketiga ibu untuk mengenyam pendidikan. Kedua, penulis menganalisa ketiga anak perempuan dari masing-masing ibu tersebut, yang telah mengenyam pendidikan dan bagaimana mereka berjuang untuk mengubah pandangan bahwa perempuan tidak harus mengikuti semua kata-kata lelaki, berhak mengutarakan pendapat mereka sendiri dan hidup mandiri seperti layaknya lelaki. Dari sini, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa pendidikan mempunyai peran penting dalam kehidupan perempuan.

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THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN MICHAEL GORKIN AND RAFIQA OTHMAN’STHREE MOTHERS, THREE

DAUGHTERS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

In English Letters

By DANIEL NIKO

Student Number: 094214015

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2016

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THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN MICHAEL GORKIN AND RAFIQA OTHMAN’STHREE MOTHERS, THREE

DAUGHTERS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

In English Letters

By DANIEL NIKO

Student Number: 094214015

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2016

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STOP

BE YOURSELF

AND

START

BE YOUR BEST SELF

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For God

For My Family

For My Girlfriend

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to Jesus Christ, who always with me and supporting me, accompanying me finishing not only this thesis, but also my study. He is always by my side, giving me strength, bless and gift in my life.

I have to thank my advisor, A. B. Sri Mulyani, M. A., Ph. D, for her time in guiding me and her advice in not only finishing this thesis, but also motivating me as well. This thesis will not be researchable if not because of her. I also have to thank my co-advisor, Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S. S., M. Hum., for her help in checking and revising this thesis.

Thank you for my beloved family. Thanks to my father, Hindarto Chandra for being a guardian and always being an example for me. I have to thank my mother, Debora Titik Kumeirini, for her love and her care. Also, to my beloved sister and brother, Eunice Angelina Sonia and Misael Christian, for not always, but mostly, making me feels at home.

I also would like to thank my girlfriend and partner, Maria Kristiana Sari for her supports, prayers, motivation, and help so I can finish this thesis. Thank you for all the love and patience that you have been given to me all this time. I will never forget all your sacrifice for me.

Special thanks and good luck for Yoshua Setyo Nugroho Wibowo. Thank you for being my best friend in Yogyakarta, especially during my hard time.

Thank you, William Albert and Johan Setyawan Atmaja for the togetherness since our middle school days.

I also have to thank all my friends in Yogyakarta, Rengganis Hendryasari Tunggadewi Wijaya, Tan Michael Chandra, Hizkia Andriyan Permana, Hermawan, Surya Pranata, Richard Kevin Kristanto, all of my Hitman System brotherhood, and others that I cannot mention one by one. I will never forget the time we have spent together.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ... ii

APPROVAL PAGE ... iii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE... iv

LEMBAR PERTANYAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ....v

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ... vi

MOTTO PAGE ... vii

DEDICATION PAGE... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS...x

ABSTRACT ... xi

ABSTRAK... xii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...1

A. Background of the Study...1

B. Problem Formulation ...5

C. Objectives of the Study ...5

D. Definition of Terms...6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...8

A. Review of Related Studies ...8

B. Review of Related Theories ...12

1. Character and Characterization ...12

2. Patriarchy ...13

3. Feminism...15

C. Theoretical Framework ...20

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ...22

A. Object of the Study...22

B. Approach of the Study ...23

C. Method of the Study...24

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ...25

A. Patriarchal domination in the Mother’s life...26

B. Feminism and Education reflected by the Daughters ...33

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION...46

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...50

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ABSTRACT

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ABSTRAK

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Every individual has the same inherent rights regardless of their race, age, gender, and social class to get education. Through education, a person can open his or her mind to understand about something that happened in someone’s life. Education offers a lot of beneficial things, such as being able to get a job with reasonable salary, giving a broad knowledge of the world arounda person’s life and to develop the powers of reasoning and judgement. Therefore, education becomes essential part in this modern life.

Nevertheless, education in the Three Mothers, Three Daughters novel is considered unimportant. In this novel, the Palestinian women, portrayed by the mother’s era, which was in 1948, were still expected to be housewives and mothers in traditional ways. Moreover, the mothers were illiterate because they did not get the chance to study. These problems show that women did not have opportunity to get better life through education, despite the fact that education significantly increaseswomen’s opportunities in work and society.

Focusing on Palestinian women, they are seen as the major victim of the Israeli-Palestine conflict in the 1940s until late 1967. Their lives have been touched deeply by the loss of Palestine and their struggle for better life as being free people from the occupation of Israel. Furthermore, the lack of formal education, the nationalist struggle, patriarchy, marriage, maternity in everyday life are also

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debated by the women. In Three Mothers, Three Daughters, Palestinian women’s life is represented by Umm Mahmud and Marianne, Umm Abdullah and Samira, and Umm Khaled and Leila, has brought a view of the difficult personal and national events that they confronted. The rules of patriarchy have made up their life. These women received the amount of control that men exert on their lives. The fathers who controlled access to educational opportunities, selected marriage partners and also, husbands who made crucial decisions (such as how many children they would bear). According to Mies, patriarchy, literally means the rule of fathers. But today’s male dominance goes beyond the ‘rule of fathers’, it includes the rule of husbands, of male bosses, or ruling men in most societal institutions, in politics and economics, in short what has been called ‘the men’s league’ or ‘men’s house’ (1986:37).

In the aspect of education, these six Palestinian women faced the most difficult time when they want to get the education to get life better. This problem is similar to what Basow (1992:208) stated that ‘women’s education has been seen historically as less valuable and important than men’s education’ at the mothers’ era before 1948, their fathers controlled and decided them to not go to school because of the fathers’ belief that their daughters will become a strong-willed women that would be capable of stating the truth against the men, outsmart them, and cannot be controlled, which resulted in the loss of the men’s influence and domination towards women. In the term of marriage, the decision on whom the daughters should be married to was totally made by their fathers. They are forced

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to marry at the young-age (14 and or 16 years old). They also struggle to understand the reasons for their subordination to men.

Different from the mothers’ era, in the daughters’ era today, the vast majority of Palestinian girls receive some education, with most receiving seven years or more. The trend toward increased education is also true for Palestinian men, but the leap has been more dramatic for women. In this novel, two of the daughters went to college, and the third completed ninth grade. Furthermore, they have freedom to choose their marriage partner and also, they were not really experiencing the traditional structuring of Palestinian society but still, the care of children and household chores are still widely considered women’s responsibilities. Yet in recent decades and in increasing numbers women have gone to jobs outside the home. Two of daughters have worked outside the home: one as a teacher and the other as a social worker; and the third has worked as a paid child caretaker within her home. The two college-educated women have been able to enter the public workforce. Those facts show that education has important role to the women. Regarding to the experiences mentioned, those mothers and daughters wanted to get rid out of the rules of patriarchy and the oppression within the family and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The daughters in this story, who became an educated person and dared to reveal their identity to men, showed their ability to be free women in Israeli-Palestine conflict and within their family.

This case represents the feminist movements in them. They can be called feminists because feminists are“those who dare to break the conspiracy of silence

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about oppressive, unequal man-woman relationship and who want to change it.” (Mies, 1986:6). They have revealed the important truth of their struggles and confessions through their fine stories related to their daily life in Israeli-Palestine conflict also, within the family. It is a fine example of how life stories introduce complex questions of identity and perspective into larger national histories.

In relation to education, feminists through feminism theory bring the issue of discrimination explosively into the foreground by mapping the impact of educational policies on women and men. According to Rich (1929:390), the ways in which education is used as a weapon of colonization. Feminist education, therefore, includes not just the study of women’s topics but an acknowledgement of that relationship suppressed by the academy of women-affiliated women. Thus, in Three Mothers, Three Daughters, we see that education, especially college education, has given Palestinian women a greater sense of authority. The experience of leaving the family and going to college is one that open women’s eyes. Each girl who leaves her home to go to college offers a model for others to follow their path. Furthermore, through these six Palestinian women’s life experiences, the writer wants to reveal the role of education in their life, seen from their life background as Palestinian women in different era. The writer chose this topic because education has become prominent aspect for everybody’s life, whether it is for men or women. The writer wants to reveal that especially, education for women give greater impacts in their life, in order to get better jobs outside the home, to help increasing the family income, and to get greater knowledge and awareness as women, mothers and daughters. Female education has an enormous benefits and

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roles in their life. Therefore, education is supposed to be given to women without gender gap between women and men, within the education itself. Education is about the right for women and for men that resulted in the development of a country and the best society life.

B. Problem Formulation

Based on the introductions above, the problems of this study are formulated as follows:

1. How did patriarchy limit the mothers’opportunity to get education as depicted in Three Mothers, Three Daughters?

2. How did education changethe daughters’life as depicted in Three Mothers, Three Daughters?

C. Objective of the Study

This study focuses on the role of education in the Palestine women on Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman’sThree Mothers, Three Daughters novel seen from the theories of feminism and education. This study analyses how Palestinian women’s life under patriarchy rules that influence their educations and also, the role of education itself that in the end, changing their perspectives and views toward patriarchy practice; the inequality between men and women; and achieving the rights in their life. Furthermore, this study shows that the role of education in Palestinian women has brought and given important aspects of a new life as educated women, not only as housewives or an ordinary women.

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The first objective is tounderstand the three mothers’ story andanswering the first problem by describing how did patriarchy limit the three mothers’ opportunity to get education.Then, the writer analyses the three daughters’ stories and examining the details to explain how did education change the three daughters’ life for the better.

D. Definition of Terms

To avoid different interpretation, the researcher limits the definition of the terms which are discussed in this thesis. Here are the definition of patriarchy (private and public patriarchy), and feminism.

1. Patriarchy

According to The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, patriarchy is a system of male authority which oppresses women through its social, political, economic institution. In any of historical forms that patriarchal society takes, whether it is feudal, capitalist, or socialist, a sex-gender system and a system of economic discrimination operate simultaneously. Patriarchy has power from men’s greater access to, and meditation of, the resources and rewards of authority structures inside and outside the home (Humm, 1990:159).

In Forms and Degrees of Patriarchy, Walby distinguished two main forms of patriarchy, which are private and public. Private patriarchy is based upon household production as the main site of women’s oppression. Public patriarchy is based principally in public sites such as employment and the state (1993:18).

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2. Feminism

According to Owen M. Fiss (1994:44), feminism is the set of beliefs and ideas that belong to the broad social and political movement to achieve greater equality for women. As its governing ideology, feminism gives shape and direction to the women’s movement and, of course, is shaped by it. Women seek equality in all spheres of life and use a broad array of strategies to achieve that goal.

The researcher also uses Guerin’s definition of feminism (1999:29). In its diversity, feminism is concerned with the marginalization of all women: that is, with their being related to a secondary position.

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

This chapter consists of three sections: review on related studies, review on related theories, and theoretical framework. The first part contains study which has already been conducted by others. The second part contains some theories used in analyzing the data. The last part contains the theoretical framework, discussing the contribution of the related studies and the theories in answering the problem of the study and how they are applied in order to answer the problem.

A. Review of Related Studies

In order to support the analysis, a related study which more or less has the same topic or theme with this study are used. This related study are taken from other undergraduate thesis and will be helpful for additional understanding of the researcher.

In Three Mothers, Three Daughters: Palestinian Women’s Stories, Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman present six remarkable life narratives from Palestinian women living in the Occupied Territories and Israel. Through the story, Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman try to share the highly personal and diverse experiences of these Palestinian Women. These Palestinian women have to deal with the situation of Israeli occupation and the traditional structuring of Palestinian society that made them as inferior, treated unequal with men, and ruled by the Israel occupation. Besides that, these six women, especially the daughters portrayed the

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other side of some of Palestinian women who can get the chance to become an independent, determined, and outspoken women, through the education levels they experienced in.

On the article titled Women and Education in Palestine: Is Education Improving the Status of Women?, RASIT (Royal Academy of Science International Trust) discussed about how women should be educated in the right way.

Internationally, women’s education is seen as a development necessity and as a human right. Similarly, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2000) have included goals for improving education, gender equality and women’s empowerment, while emphasizing that women and girl’s education is essential in building democratic societies and creating a platform for sustained economic growth. More importantly, education should serve as a means to improve women’s status within their families and societies. These statements clearly emphasized that education must be given to especially women, because women also have rights to get education as equal as men so that, they can support their economic life within families and societies.

The Palestinian people have viewed the education of future generation as a form of protest in respondingto the region’s on-going conflict, displacement, and upheaval and, appropriately, the education of women has thrived in recent years. This commitment to education has resulted a combined male and female gross enrolment ratio of 82,4 % for primary, secondary, and tertiary education (UNDP, 2008). At the primary level, females have lower repetition and dropout rates; at the secondary level females routinely outnumber their male counterparts, as well as

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outrank them in academic achievement and Tawjihi scoring; and at the tertiary level females also outnumber males, and pursue and excel in a variety of academic fields. Thus, there should be no question that Palestine contains a motivated and educated pool of women who well-prepared contributing to society.

In relation to the researcher’s studies, which tried to develop the studies above, the daughters, who represented as new generation Palestinian women, has shown about the impact of education in their life. In the daughters’ era, which differ fromthe mothers’ era, they showed about their thoughts and views, they had good jobs, and one of them participated in the political organizations. These facts are based on the education aspects that influence their life as Palestinian women. Historically, Palestinian women had looked for the equality of human rights as equal as the men in their life, especially in the aspect of education until nowadays. Palestinian women have understood that their presence must be equal with men. They are now educated, participated in the political organizations and had opportunity to enter the work field.

Recent studies of the Condition of Palestine women in 2007, report that the completion of education is expected to impinge on 170 thousand students in 320 schools, half of whom are females. In this context, the Amnesty International mentioned in a report two reasons which make the above situation harder on females than male students. The first reason is the economic deterioration and increase in poverty rate forcing families who cannot afford providing college education to their children to prioritize their sons since these are expected to be able to support a family when they marry. The second reason is that some families,

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especially in rural or more conservative areas are unwilling to allow their daughters to live away from home or to be exposed to the potential dangers of daily commuting to and from university, such as being stranded at a closed checkpoint and unable to return home at night, a fairly frequent occurrence for thousands of Palestinians.

Other than going to school, i.e when they can, young Palestinian girls had few opportunities for development, recreation, and participation, very few safe spaces exist for young girls to congregate, and even these suffer from lack of necessary funding and are poorly equipped and managed. Meanwhile, some families have no choice but to pressure their daughters to marry at an early age because of poverty and living expenses.

Despite all these difficulties, the rates of learning and school attendance are growing, which proves the strong will of Palestinian females and give their credence to education. The percentage of illiterate women (15 years and above) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip decreased from 15.9% in 2000 to 10.2% in 2006. Although it is higher than illiteracy rate among males, 90 it remains lower than its parallel rate in Palestinian refugee communities, which was estimated at 24.4% in Jordan’s camps in the year 2000, 20.7% in Syria in 2006, and 29.5% in Lebanon in 2006 as well. Meanwhile, female student enrolment at the elementary and secondary school levels remained high in the WB and GS (90% and 81.6% in 2006 and 2007 respectively). This percentage is particularly greater than the level of female student enrolment among Palestinians in refugee hosting countries, which was estimated at 68% in Jordan in 2000 (for females aged 6-24 years), 66.5% in

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Syria in 2006 (for females aged 7-24 years), and 59.3% in Lebanon in 2006 (for females aged 7-17 years).

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Characters and Characterization

According to Abrams, character is the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say - the dialogue - and what they do - the action (1981:2).

Therefore characters are important element in the story. The stories always introduce their characters to give a description to the readers. Character is commonly used in two ways (Stanton, 1965:17). The first is that character designates the individuals who appear in the story. The second is that character refers to the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that makes up each of these individuals. Character gives a certain situation or circumstance in the story because he or she shows his or her emotions in it. According to Holman and Harmon (1986:70), Character is a complicated term that includes tile idea of the moral constitution of the human personality, the presence of moral uprightness, and the simpler notion of the presence of creatures in art that seem to be human beings of one sort or another.

Jones (1968:84) adds that characterization is the depicting of clear images of a person. According to Jones, there are two methods of characterization, the

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dramatic and the analytic. In the dramatic we form our opinions of the characters from what they do and say, from their environment, and what other characters think of them. In the analytic method the author comments upon the characters, explaining their motives, their appearance, and their thoughts.

In describing people in the narrative works, there are several ways may be used: personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, and inner thoughts.

2. Patriarchy

Patriarchy describes a social structure where the actions and ideas of men and boys are dominant over women and girls. This circumstance of male dominance is reflected in correlative inequalities throughout the society. In a family, the father or the eldest male is considered the patriarch or “head of the household”.

Similarly, Hooks (2000:42) states that patriarchy literally means ‘father rule’. In practice, it is the institutionalisation and legitimation of sexism. Patriarchy is the systemisation of the oppression of women by social structure such as marriage, heterosexually, laws, policies, and even language. Feminist have written about, analysed and fought against patriarchy on numerous levels. Mies adds

The concept of patriarchy was re-discovered by the new feminist movement as a struggle concept, because the movement needed a term by which the totality of oppressive and exploitative relations which affect women, could be expressed as well as their systematic character (1986:37)

Moreover, the term ‘patriarchy’ denotes the historical and societal dimension of women’s exploitation and oppression, and is thus less open to

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biological interpretations, in contrast, for example, to the concept of ‘male dominance’.

In Palestinian society– as in all patriarchal societies–men are considered to have an advantage in resources, and perceived as enjoying superior personal characteristics, as well as skills and abilities that are supposedly possessed exclusively by men, including intelligence, wisdom, discretion, knowledge, professional prestige, the ability to make a living, etc. According to Gerber (1995:70), “society expects men to be more achievement-driven and competitive than women and to be better able to fulfil themselves”. Men are also expected to be more dominant than women and above all to dominate them”. Consequently, Dobash et all (1992:16) stated in Women, Violence, and Social Change that the social movements, especially women’s movements, are composed of collective action of those seeking control of ‘the great cultural orientations by which a society’s…relationships are normatively organized’, what he calls ‘historicity’. The social movement is the organized collective behaviour of a class actor (in this case women) struggling against her adversary for the social control of historicity in a concrete community.’ He also added that, “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 of force and violence. In their view, this is a way of “rehabilitating” the status of the male”.

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3. Feminism

“The emergence of feminist ideas and feminist politics depend on the understanding that, in all societies which all divide the sexes into differing cultural, economic, or political spheres, women are less valued than men” (Humm, 1992:1). Regarding Humm’s statement above, feminism arises from the consciousness against the oppression, subordination, and discrimination towards women in every aspect of life due to the stereotype that women are less valuable than men. In general, the feminist agenda is creating a better world where there is equality between men and women, thus, there are different analyses in finding what and how women are oppressed. Ellen Willis also noted that the feminism theory aims to challenge and overthrow patriarchy by opposing standard gender roles and oppression of women (Willis, 1992:117), creating equality beetwen both genders.

Viola Klein also stated in The historical background of feminism that 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 ofall, 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)

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This thesis tries to show the rebellion of inequality of gender. Therefore, it is important to understand the general idea about feminism which is equality. Both of women and men have same freedom to be free. Jo freeman in Women: The Feminist Perspective says that either men or women are born to be free and want to place equally. They have the same rights in front of God (Freeman, 1975:439). Therefore, women should have the same rights as men to be treated equally.

Unfortunately, women have been conditioned to believe that they are inferior to men, and it seems that people’s thought and belief about this condition is acceptable and naturally true (Montagu, 1953:23).Women also perform most of the household chores. It is the most prominent stereotype towards women.

Similarly, Williams and Best (1990:125) state that gender stereotyping toward women also occurred in the education aspects. Cultures vary somewhat regarding the full range of traits and abilities associated with each gender, but in nearly all cultures, women are more associated with communal traits and men are more associated with agentic traits. Indeed, gender stereotyping is often used to justify the nurturing roles assigned to women, although research suggests that differential social roles actually create gender stereotypes (Eagly & Steffen, 1984:164).

That is, whoever typically cares for children or the elderly is viewed as nurturant, regardless of gender; and whoever typically works in high-powered jobs is viewed as active and dominant, again regardless of gender. Given their link with adult roles, gender stereotypes also affect educational opportunities. Because boys

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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 paying and higher-status jobs in a culture because boys are seen as both more ‘‘naturally’’ inclined to such work as well as the more likely breadwinner in a family.

These stereotypes and perceptions in society rise feminism. Feminism appears because the unfair acts and treatment toward woman in society. Men often oppress and control women in many ways. It is believed by nature that women’s place is in the house, caring for husband, and children. Women are not given a chance to develop their potentialities in spheres. (Fakih, 1996:69).

Deborah L. Madsen in Feminist Theory and Literary Practice states that feminist literary theory has three main aims. First is to show the readers about the issue of patriarchal power that has structured in society. Second is to re-establish various achievements of women. Third is to find the new perspective about women and theory that shapes our lives (Madsen, 2000: 15). Ms. Arksonkool also said in

the International Seminar on Women’s Education and Empowerment that an individual empowerment of women is attained in relationship to the larger society (1975:9).

Freeman in Women a Feminist Perspective 3rdEdition states that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain

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inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the persuade of happiness (1975:493).

Particularly, this thesis deals with the unequal treatment that women get in patriarchal society because they are considered as inferior people who are powerless anduseless. The division of gender roles which is based on ‘sex class’ then triggers inequality which affects other women economically, culturally, and socially. This situation then occurs feminist theory that tries to oppose the oppression toward women which is based on sex class. This theory tries to show how women as different sex from men accept different treatment in society. The aims of this feminist theory is to emphasize in “destroying” sex-class system by showing and proving that women have the same power to struggle with men. The agent who suppresses women’s movement is the supremacy privileges that men have over women (Madsen, 2000: 153).

Paludi (2010:68) states that, “the socialization of girls influences gender differentiation in personality characteristics and values”. For example, girls are often socialized to believe that when they become women, they should place other things ahead of their career advancement, such as home and family. Even if women do not hold these values as primary, they are often perceived as holding these values by the corporation; corporate managers do not promote people to positions of power who do not hold career as their main priority.

To complicate this situation, women who do not hold these “traditionally feminine realm” sacred, as society deems they should, may be harshly judged by

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this “failure of feminity”. Women are still, to certain extent, expected to value children and taking care of the home and family as a priority; women who deviate from this convention are often viewed with judgement. Regarding to those problems, feminism theory reveal the truth that men and women should be equal politically, economically, and socially.

Similarly, Caroline Mooser states that the empowerment approach, which recognizes the triple role of women in the family, economic production and the community, and recommends challenging the social structure and oppresive situation women have to suffer. Women have to increase their power not in terms of domination over others, but in terms of gains over their self-esteem and internal force. This means women have the right to decide about their own life and to influence social change, through their ability to gain control over crucial natural and cultural resources (Moser 1992:49).

Palestinian women in this novel, especially the daughters, has represented the feminist movement. Their thoughts and views, the job opportunity they got and politic organization they joined are the results of the education background that they experienced. Stromquist said in The practical and the theoretical bases for empowerment that cognitive, psychological and political are part of empowerment’s components. These components are related to the understanding of women’s condition of subordination (cognitive); the development of feelings that women can act upon to improve their conditions (psychological); the ability to organize and mobilize for social changes (political). (1993:50) This can be related

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to Sime (1991:50). He adds that in political perspective searches for a democratic society through the full participation of all people in social life regardless of their race, social status and gender. It also looks forward for people to achieve peace, tolerance, and solidarity. It promotes the empowerment of minority groups, popular and marginal sectors of society, and women to be able to influence social and political decisions.

They have proved that their life as Palestinian women, who was still under Israel occupation, could be an educated women with excellent thoughts and views, their contribution to their society, family and nations. As Nagat El-Sanabary informed inWomen’s Education in Developing Countriesthat some Middle Eastern countries have well-developed education systems. Generally, the more developed and diversified the education system, the better are the educational opportunities for girls and women (1993:147).

C. Theoretical Framework

There are some theories used and related in this study. Those theories helped the researcher to answer the questions of problem formulation in the previous chapter.

The theory of character and characterization can be used as the reference to identify the characters. It provides information and limitation on how characters depict themselves in a work of literature. This theory is very useful and helpful to observe the characteristics of the characters in the texts.

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The theory of patriarchy are used to help the researcher analysing how the female characters, the mothers’ part experienced patriarchy practice in their life. In conclusion, the researcher wants to give a description about the Palestinian women’s life under patriarchy rules that depicted in the mothers’ era in 1948.

The theory of feminism is very important to help the researcher answering the question on feminism. Since this study focusing on women’s life in two different era, patriarchy rules and the education influences, the theory of feminism is very helpful to answer the problems and drawing conclusion.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This section consists of four parts: object of the study, approach of the study, and research method.

A. Object of the study

Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman’s novelThree Mothers, Three Daughters is the source of the study. The object of the study is how education in Palestine have a big role in these women’s life. This literary works consists of 92 pages. Its content focuses on presenting 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 scope of life, many elements of the twentieth-century Palestinian experience.

Three Mothers, Three Daughters is a novel written by Michael Gorkin and his co-writer Rafiqa Othman in 1996, and was published by University of California press, also in 1996. It has been translated to various language, and is published in many countries. Three Mothers, Three Daughters is an excellent source that documents the life experiences of Palestinian women who have witnessed very difficult personal and national events. It is also a good example of how life stories introduce complex questions of identity and perspective into larger national histories.

Several themes emerging from these life stories. Issues of formal education, the nationalist struggle, marriage, maternity, and the role of Islam in everyday life

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are debated by the six women in this story. Their lives have been touched deeply by the loss of Palestine, although some are more open than the other about their political involvement. One mother-daughter pair have been very affected, many of the daughter’s siblings have been imprisoned and tortured because of their involvement with the PLO and the first Intifada. By contrast, another pair shows lack of interest in political involvement, but they are still affected with the trauma of clashes with the Israeli government, family separation, and the loss of property and honour due to the 1948 war. In the stories of family, motherhood, and partnership that has been told from all of the accounts, authors of the novel are telling the reader with a full picture of how complex everyday people’s lives are. In the case of the Palestinians, these issues are bound up in the nationalist cause, which could cause a more complicated problems.

B. Approach of the Study

In analysing the novel, feminism approach is used. The researcher wants to specify more on the educational aspect, because this part shows how the problems that arise in this topic. The other aspects, such as patriarchal and characters, helped the researcher developed this research to be a quality research that can be used by others for scientific matters. The purpose of feminist approach is to explain the effort in the characters’ struggle, and to show that the women there have taken a giant leap forward by being an educated women and how they dreamt of being equal to men.

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C. Method of the Study

There were some steps in this analysis. The first step was collecting the data, such as why these women was ruled by the patriarchal society in the first place, what their reaction was towards patriarchy, and how they respond to it through educational aspects and what their aspirations were for the future. The data were collected by reading the novel and understand it deeply.

The next step was analysing the data. The analysis of the data was based on the problem stated in the problem formulation in Chapter I. To answer the first problem, the intrinsic features of the data have to be found, such as the characters, their story, and their message towards the society.

Then, the second problem in the problem formulation was answered by applying the theories in Chapter II. This was done in order to show the effect of the events happened in the women’s life and how it affects their future, especially in educational aspect. The final step then was to draw conclusion from the result of the analysis.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter aims to answer the two problems that are stated in the first chapter. There are two parts in this chapter. The focus of the first part is to answer the first problem which is the analysis of the mothers’ life which under patriarchy and their perspective towards it. The second is the analysis on how feminism and education have a role for the daughters, as the background of the female characters to live better.

A. Patriarchal domination in theMothers’ life

Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman’sThree Mothers, Three Daughters has six female characters – mothers and daughters, which formed in pairs, Umm Mahmud and Marianne, Umm Abdullah and Samira, and Umm Khaled and Leila. The mother’s life depicted in this novel experienced kind of patriarchal practice which then changed their perspectives and made them to struggle for the better life. Meanwhile, the daughters’ life era had been the result of her mother’s perspectives based on their experiences in patriarchal practices and the role of education in the daughters’ life which lead them to be modern and educated Palestinian women. In this analysis, the researcherdiscusses the mothers’ parts and then, followed by the daughters’ parts.

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1. Umm Mahmud’s experience in the patriarchal society

In the Three Mothers, Three Daughters, Umm Mahmud is described as a short-heavy-hipped woman, seventy-two years old. She is a modest and traditional woman. Born in 1921, as the British mandate period was about to begin, Umm Mahmud spent her childhood and early adulthood in a turbulent period of Palestinian history, yet as a Palestinian living in the East Jerusalem, her life was unavoidably affected by the political waves that engulfed the area. From this characterization, the description of how Umm Mahmud looks like by using her personal description e.g. her age, her usual places to live, her marriage status is revealed. Recognizing the character’s personal description in the beginning, leads to the view of Palestinian women’s life.

Furthermore, Umm Mahmud in this story told about her past life. One of them was about her opportunities to go to school.

“I’d see them go off with their school bags. I was so envious, I wanted to go too.”

“When my father came homeshe(Umm Mahmud’s mother) told him, but he immediately answered, “No, she’s not going! What does she need school for? It will only make her strong-willed.”

“My father-blessed be his memory-he was an educated men. He knew how to read and write in Arabic and in English too. But he didn’t want me to learn.” (Gorkin, 1996:11)

By following her past life, at that time, Umm Mahmud felt difficulty in taking her chance as a child in the school-ages. In that case, the patriarchy rules, which literally “father’s rule” has depicted clearly in her past life regarding her father’s prohibition towards education for her own daughter.

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Another discussion was about the duty as a girl in household. Umm Mahmud stated that, while some of her friends were off school, she was at home. There were others like her too –girls who stayed at home and did chores. One of things she had to do was fetch water. This shows that her life was about to be a girl in the home only without getting a formal education. As Paludi (2010:68) stated before that women are still, to certain extent, expected to value children and taking care of the home and family as a priority.

“I was in the house, cleaning and wanted to be clever and do a real good job that day.”(Gorkin, 1996:11)

Patriarchy rules also occurred in her marriage arrangement. Her father chose her marriage partner without her consideration.

“My father chose my husband for me. What, the girl chooses her own husband? It was arranged by my father.”

“The party ended and I was married. Fourteen years old and a bride. Sure, it was too young. I think a girl should be twenty years old when she marries. That’s not too late. There’s plenty of time to have children and the girl knows more at twenty. What did I know? I was ignorant…” (Gorkin, 1996:12-13)

The statement above shows that how patriarchy rules affected her life, in the aspect of marriage partner and the decision-making that supposed to be her rights. This means that, at that time, women’s life was arranged perfectly to be only a housewife. It is similar with what Hooks (2000:42) states that patriarchy is the systemisation of the oppression of women by social structure such as marriage, heterosexually, laws, policies, and even language.

Behind patriarchy rules toward her, she actually had her perspective towards it. She wanted to get education, as equal as her friends (female-male friends) but

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because of the father’s rule on her life, she could not have gone to school and get education. She then argued that she passed her wish to all her children.

“Now I have educated children myself, boys and girls.”

“My children, they wanted to teach me when they were going to school. Too late. When you’re a girl, that’s the time to learn. My father, blessed be his memory, didn’t want me to learn. And that’s the way it was.” (Gorkin, 1996:11)

From the statements above, it can be concluded that although she is uneducated woman, she wanted her daughter to get education and live better. Her last daughter’s name is Marianne. In educating her, Umm Mahmud did not apply the patriarchal rules.

“Seriously, I wouldn’t mind if Marianne meets someone –a person from here (America)–who wants to live there. Up until now, she has had many suitors. Some were uneducated and untrained. She didn’t want any of them. She wants an educated man, someone like herself. Alright, let it be an educated man, that’s fine with me. But, at twenty-seven years old, it’s already time to choose someone. I want her to choose. I can’t force her. Haram! You must not force a daughter to marry someone.” (Gorkin, 1996:30)

That statement showed that patriarchy rules has made up her ways of thinking and/or her perspectives towards it. Referring to her past life, she had willingness to get a better life, which then experienced by her daughters. She purely did not want that her daughters experienced the same situation like hers in the past life.

2. Umm Abdullah’s experiences in the patriarchal society

A fifty-four years old woman, Umm Abdullah is still an attractive woman, with high cheekbones and light brown eyes and an electric, if infrequent, smile. Like so many Palestinian woman of her age or older, she has a deep feeling of anger

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- and pride - in having lived through, and endured, a hard history. That findings has shown to us, as a reader, that in that time, the Palestinian women’s life was full of tragedy because of Israel-Palestinian conflict and the war period of it, has brought a hard life as women. Furthermore, her past life, shown us that patriarchy also occurred in her life. In Umm Abdullah’s case, what she had experienced was not different with Umm Mahmud’s. When she was young, she did not have any opportunity to go to school because there is no formal school, but only a Koran-study school called Kuttab. It was about a schoolroom for boys, where the boys would go and sit on straw mats on the floor and learn the Koran.

At that time, she only worked. A job she liked was taking care of the lambs and also, she helped her mother in housework or in the field.

“When I wasn’t playing, I was working. A job I liked was taking care of lambs. My father entrusted me with that.”

“Let see, besides the work with the lambs, I’d also help my mother. Housework or in the fields-whatever she wanted. I was a good child, an obedient child.” (Gorkin, 1996:45)

Those findings clearly shown that there was nothing to do for a girl except, helping her parents. She did not have a chance to get an education in formal school. In her young age, the girls in that time are forced to get married. Umm Abdullah told that her sister were forced by her father to get married soon. In fact, her age was still thirteen years old. Her mother also experienced the same.

“Poor thing! My father married her off at thirteen years old. In that time, theyused to marry the girls off at twelve, thirteen or fourteen.”

“My mother, too, had the same thing happen to her. She was married at eleven.” (Gorkin, 1996:46)

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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

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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 thepatriarchal 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)

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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 paying and higher-status jobs in a culture 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)

Her 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 and/or 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.

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B. Feminism and Education Reflected by the Daughters

In this analysis, the researcherwants to depict the daughters’ era which more educated, modern and skilful women. Their life background as the educated women have led them to study up to college-level, work and feel freedom in choosing what they want to be and to do. The researcher uses the theory of character and characterization and also, the theory of feminism in relation to education to reveal the cases and the experiences of them as educated and open-minded women. They are Marianne, Samira, and Leila.

1. Marianneand her view towards Palestinian women’s stereotype

Marianne is the youngestof Umm Mahmud’s thirteen children and the only one still living the house where she grew up. Although twenty-seven years old, she seems younger, with a sense of playfulness, even mischievousness, about her. Unlike her mother, who wears the modest attire of traditional women (long dresses and a head scarf), Marianne prefers Western clothes (jeans, skirts, jerseys, and blouses) that accentuate her slim figure.

The author describes the characteristics of Marianne from her looks, her dresses, and the behaviours. It can be simplified that Marianne’s character was a typical Palestinian woman who knows about modern lifestyles.

Marianne confessed about her own life that differ with her mother’s life which are under patriarchy rules. She stated that her father was nice to her, never hit her, never stopped her to do anything and allowed her to play with boys. It means that, Marianne’s life was better than her mother’s life.

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“So I finished high school and then I went to college. No, I wasn’t the first. Let’s see, among my sisters three went up to sixth grade, one went to high school, and three of us went to college. Of the girls, I went the furthest. Among my brothers, three went to high school and three went to college. That’s pretty good, don’t you think? About half of us have college education. That’s not bad if you consider that my father and my mother, between them, never completed one year of school. That’s the way it is now with the Palestinians. Education, education. Everyone who can go to university, goes. Boys and girls, too.”(Gorkin, 1996:19)

That statement was the fact that in the Marianne’s era, education is seen as important and everybody goes to schools and universities to get education. As Nagat El-Sanabary informed inWomen’s Education in Developing Countries that some Middle Eastern countries have well-developed education systems. Generally, the more developed and diversified the education system, the better are the educational opportunities for girls and women (1993:147).

It is fortunate for Marianne, when she gets an opportunity to get education, up to college-level. Her parents were really supporting her to get education up to college level. Furthermore, she thought that she did not want to be a girl who only stayed at home, cleaned, and cooked all day, to be a servant. She only knew that her willingness was studying.

“For me, there was never any question about it. I never imagined for a minute that I’d finish a school and just sit around the home. What, I was going to stay here and clean and cook all day, and be a servant? No, no, that’s not for me.” (Gorkin, 1996:20)

Marriane, then continued her education in Abu Dis College. She stated that she had to study very hard in there. She also said that she did not have much time to have fun with her friends because of her willingness to study focusly. Furthermore, she continued her study in Bethlehem University in order to take her

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teaching certificate. She then became a teacher, a math and science teacher in an elementary school level in Jerusalem.

“I’m working this year as a math and science teacher in an elementary school here in East Jerusalem. I teach third graders. It’s school for girls only. I like my job. I like teaching the students and they like me too, no doubt about it.”(Gorkin, 1996:33)

Marianne’s experiences in education field is similar to what Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics: Women and Men has revealed, that Palestinian community colleges, especially females, comprise the overwhelming majority of academic, social work, and para-medical graduates (1997:38). It also revealed that the proportion of female teaching staff decreases at higher levels of the educational system.(1997: 40)

Because of the education itself, the ways of her thinking were broadly opened. One of it was the religion aspect in her. She states that she is not an observant Muslim in the way she dress.

“I just don’t like wearing the religious garb – dresses that cover the arms and legs, head coverings. I like to wear skirt and short dresses.”

“I know my mother, and I guess my father too, doesn’t feel I’m religious enough.”(Gorkin, 1996:21)

Those decision-making on the way she dressed, lead to her views towards fundamentalists who looked down on women and too strict about the dresses that women should wear.

“Look it’s all right, I’ll wear the hejab and the long dresses. So? Our problem is not what we wear, this or that dress. The important things is what women’s place will be in the society – honourable or not. It’s not the fundamentalist who are forcing us to dress modestly. Islam demands that of

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us, it’s part of the religion. But look, I know there are some fundamentalists who interpret Islam in an erroneous way. They use the religion to come down on woman. One of these fundamentalists are much too strict with women, always watching them to make sure their behaviour is absolutely proper, always checking to make sure nobody is looking at women. This is not the way to be. I’m against that type of thing.”(Gorkin, 1996:32) She also discussed Palestinian kids who joined and involved in intifada. They were all uneducated and not learn anything. Without education like that, they were for sure going to serve Israel as the simple workers, the cheap labor in Israel’s economy. She thought that Palestinian people need educated people to build a Palestinian state. She also said that she will support Hamas, but one condition: everyone is permitted to express their own views. Also, in a state run according to true Islamic principles, women have their rights.

“I mean, the right to education, to work, to choose a husband. The fundamentalists here, Hamas, agree with this. They support women’s right to get an education and work alongside men, on the condition that women be dressed modestly and behave properly.”(Gorkin, 1996:32)

According to Freeman in Women a Feminist Perspective 3rdEdition, all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the persuade of happiness (1975:493).

Besides, Marianne also stated that in the Palestinian society, the existence of male-dominated is more valuable than the women side. It made Marianne thought that in male–dominated society does not mean that men have more value than women. Women are just as valuable as men. Similarly, Marianne thought that women should get more attention and recognition, especially in Palestine, a country where women are at a disadvantage.

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2. Samira’s involvement in Palestinian women’ organization

On the outskirts of Bethlehem, Samira grew up along with her eight brothers and two sisters, and it was here that she got married and raised her two children. At the age of thirty-one, Samira has been a political activist for most of her life and spent three years in jail for throwing a Molotov cocktail at Israeli soldiers. When she speaks, there is an openness about her.

When she was at seventh grade, she started to get interested in involving on politics. She finally found things that has become her passion.

“From seventh grade on, I began to have some friends who came from outside the camp. We were going to the UNRWA junior high school here together. And it was through them that I began to get interested in politics. I started to write about my feelings—about poverty and suffering. My friends gave me political books to read, things about the Palestinian struggle, books on Marxism and class struggle.”

“By the time I got to high school, tenth through twelfth grades, I already had developed strong political opinions. More than that, I had begun to see that I wanted to fight for my views. I was reading all kinds of things–books by Victor Hugo, Maxim Gorky, and more political books. I remember one book that really excited me. It was called Al - Fedaiyin (the Guerrillas). It’s a book that talked about the fedaiyin camps in Jordan, the training the fighters went through, and some of the actions they went on. I began to feel I wanted to be like them”.(Gorkin, 1996:38)

Those quotations of Samira shows that at that time, Samira started to develop herself as a modern educated Palestinian women who were free to get what she wants. She also realized that she had to do something to fight her views, started from reading about political issues of the books. She also stated that her plight as refugees, that means Palestinians’ refugees, Palestinians’ poverty, was the result of a great injustice that had been done to them. The Israelis had come as colonists, they forced the Palestinians out of their villages, and they took Palestinians’ land.

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According to Ms. Arksonkool inthe International Seminar on Women’s Education

and Empowerment, an individual empowerment of women is attained in relationship to the larger society (1975:9). Samira’s awareness and her critical views are similar to what Citing Depthnews states that, it is a process in which women gain control over their own lives by knowing and claiming their rights at all levels of society at the international, local, and household levels (1975:9).

“I finished up high school in East Jerusalem. You see, I was actually a very good student, I had outstanding grades even with my political involvement. It was a good high school to attend if you wanted to go on to college. And I did. Out of the girls in my graduation class, I had the second highest score. This was high enough for me to go to college and good enough for me to get a scholarship, too.”(Gorkin, 1996:40-41)

According to her statement, her intended to go forward to university means that she wanted to be educated women, who can improve her point of views toward what her life would be. She had views that education was really important and need to be finished in order to get better life. Her strong willingness to continue her education up to college level is a prove to empower herself in fighting her wants and views. As she went to college, her involvement in politics becomes deeper. She even attacked Israeli soldiers by throwing a Molotov cocktail at Israeli bus full of soldiers and settlers, which led to her imprisonment for three years.

“We got together one day and decided to attack some Israeli soldiers. It was a kind of spontaneous thing, not planned out at all. We went up to the army checkpoint just outside the camp, Molotov cocktails in our hands, and we hurled them at a bus of soldiers and settlers. Once we had thrown the Molotov cocktails, the soldiers starts running after us. I was running as fast as I could, but they easily caught up with me, and when they did, they started beating the hell out of me with their rifles until they got me back to their post. They sentenced me to three years in jail. ”(Gorkin, 1996:42)

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Her action is similar with what Caroline Mooser stated that women have to increase their power not in terms of domination over others, but in terms of gains over their self-esteem and internal force. This means women have their right to decide about their own life and to influence social change, through their ability to gain control over crucial natural and cultural resources.’ (1992:49)

In jail, there were a community of women who has similar personality with her. They were educated, brave, and open-minded like her. While in jail, Samira learn a lot about life, and also about politics.

“From then on, until I got out, my life was pretty much the same—work and study, like that. The fact is, I actually got a lot out of my time there. I mean, I learned a lot. The courses in prison were more interesting, for sure. But more than that, I would say that I learned about life there, about the important things. How to relate to people, how to stay loyal to your ideas, how to plan for the future.”(Gorkin, 1996:43)

From these excerpts above we can see that Samira had took a different path towards education than most Palestinian women had in the past, especially her mother, that even when she was in jail, she still determined to study, even with a very limited tools there. Furthermore, since she was in high school, tenth through twelfth grades, Samira has developed her views in political matters. She stated that she had strong opinions towards what Israel had been done to Palestinians.

“By the time I knew that our plight as refugees, our poverty, was the result of a great injustice that had been done to Palestinians. The Israelis had come as colonists, they forced us out of our villages, and they took our land. This same Israeli army that I saw every day in front of our camp had committed the injustices of 1948.”(Gorkin, 1996:38)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms 6th edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1981.

Arksonkool, Ms. The International Seminar on Women’s Education and Empowerment. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education, 1975.

Dobash, R. E., & R. P. Dobash. Women, Violence, and Social Change. London: Routledge, 1992.

Eagly, A. H., & V. J. Steffen. Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1984. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.46.4.735

El Sanabary, Nagat. Women’s Education in Developing Countries: barries, benefits, and policies. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Fakih, Mansour Dr. Analisis Gender dan Transformasi Sosial. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar Offset, 1996.

Fiss, Owen M., What is Feminism? Faculty Scholarship Series. Arizona: Arizona State Law Journal 413, 1994.

Freeman, Jo. Women: A Feminist Perspectives 3rd Edition. Mayfield: Mayfield Publising Company, 1975.

Gerber, G. L. Gender Stereotypes and The Problem of Marital Violence. In L. L. Adler & F. L. Denmark (Eds.), Violence and The Prevention of Violence. Westport, CT: Praeger Publisher, 1995.

Gorkin, Michael & Rafiqa Othman. Three Mothers, Three Daughters: Palestinian Women’s Stories.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996

Guerin, Wilfred. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Holman, C. Hugh & William Hormon. A Handbook to Literature. New York: Macmilan Publishing Company, 1986.

Hooks, Bell. Feminism is For Everybody: Passionate Politics. Boston: South end Press, 2000.

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Madsen, Deborah L. Feminist Theory and Literary Practice. London: Pluto Press, 2000.

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Mooser, Caroline. Women, Education, and Empowerment: Pathways towards Autonomy. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education, 1992.

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APPENDIX

The Summary of Three Mothers, Three Daughters

The novel tells about the true stories of six Palestinian women, consists of three mother-daughter pairs, who offers a view of the daily lives of women who lived, and continue to live, through a turbulent era because the presence of Israeli occupation.

Through this novel, Three Mothers, Three Daughters, that published in 1996, Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman seek to provide a glimpse of the individual lives of real Palestinian women. Through their interviews, oral histories, audiotapes, and careful translation, they seek to make more audible these women’s

voices despite the conflictsof the region’s nationalist and masculinist rhetoric. And

even today, nearly ten years after the interviews were conducted, the voices of these three pairs of Palestinian women echo their memories, hopes, and the dream of peace and freedom in a land of never ending conflicts.

The first pair, Umm Mahmud and Marianne, lives in East Jerusalem, in a land at the heart of occupation. Within the Palestinian section of a divided capital city, they are at the center of the division between Israel and Palestine, and in many ways, this affects them deeply. Though neither Marianne nor her mother had much interest in politics, during their interviews, their environment elicited many telling

remarks regarding their feelings toward “the Jews,” the West, and their relationship

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Marianne, is a Palestinian modern woman who had different life style with commonly Palestinian women. Marianne prefers Western clothes (jeans, skirts, jerseys, and blouses) that accentuate her slim figure than wearing hejab or head scarf. Her views and opinions towards what’s happening in her country can beas valuable as being an educated women.To her, Palestine’s position within Israel is

a tragedy, but she feels there is nothing she can do about it. Furthermore, she states that Hamas, is the future for her state’s growing nationalism than Intifada (the Palestinian resistance) . In the book, she says, “They see a return to religion as a way of finding themselves again, of being stronger, and of regaining our country.”

Besides the political matters she argued, Marianne is a teacher, who has experienced and interested in teaching and learning. Through her job as a teacher, Marianne has represented the modern working-woman.

Her mother, having grown up in a traditional role as the eldest daughter and being betrothed to a man without having any say, knew nothing of education,

women’s rights, or modern, Western ideals. Though she is capable of adaptation,

she remains loyal to traditional cultural habits. There is even a telling dialogue, the only one of its kind in the book, where Marianne, Umm Mahmud, and Rafika

Othman discuss women’s roles in society as a trio, and their differing opinions are clearly shown. As shown by their extensive interviews, there is little doubt that

Marianne and her mother’s local environment played a large part in influencing

their mixed feelings about politics and their understandably conflicting statements regarding cultural change.

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The second pair, Umm Abdullah and Samira, are living in Camp Aida, a refugee camp for displaced Palestinians. Their lives were undeniably altered by the 1967 war between Israel and Palestine. They are both active in the Intifada. Samira spent time in jail on four separate occasions and was even tortured, not by Israeli nationalists, she says, but by sadists. Though she did not come by it naturally, her mother is an adamant nationalist, too, and is deeply proud of her martyred and imprisoned children, protecting the rock-throwing children of her village from the onslaught of the military police. They belong to a family that believes in fighting for a free Palestinian state, as it seems all in their camp are, they believe in a future of peace, despite their violent involvement in the Intifada, and they both believe in a future decided by a more moderate government like the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), rather than a religious and fundamentalist one like Hamas.

The last pair, in a surprising but effective turn from the norm, shows a mother and daughter who lived almost outside the turmoil of war and displacement. Umm Khaled and her daughter Leila, living in a city within the state of Israel,

identify strongly with the state of Israel. While Umm Khaled remains a “Palestinian Israeli,” Leila is in fact an “Israeli Arab.” Though it seems especially that Umm Khaled is tied intimately to her traditional roots, spinning tales of God’s grace and

relying heavily on traditional medicines, this self-identification shows plainly the generational shift toward assimilation into the Israeli norm. Their section, while

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she’s Jewish or Palestinian, all mothers hurt the same,” has the most distinct

insinuations of imperialism and apartheid.

Though neither mother nor daughter received any education beyond high

school, and Leila’s schooling is noticeably manipulated by the occupiers, “about the 1948 war here, how the Jews and the Arabs fought,” Leila says, “I can’t

remember learning about it at all,” they do not seem to be bothered by this. Further,

regarding their dislocated family, who fled the city during the 1967 war, they felt only annoyance at their need, rather than compassion. Even as they are forced to carry pass-cards to travel within the nation in which they live, they desire only peace.

The role of education in Palestinian women in Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman`s three mothers, three daughters.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

STOP

BE YOURSELF

AND

START

BE YOUR BEST SELF

For God

For My Family

For My Girlfriend

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX

The Summary of Three Mothers, Three Daughters

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The role of education in Palestinian women in Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman`s three mothers, three daughters.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

STOP

BE YOURSELF

AND

START

BE YOUR BEST SELF

For God

For My Family

For My Girlfriend

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

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THEORETICAL REVIEW

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

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APPENDIX

The Summary of Three Mothers, Three Daughters

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