Between the Family and the Outside World: Jewish Girls in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

Descriptions of Jewish life in the modern Middle East and North Africa often depict women as secluded in their homes and girls as trained for their destiny of serving the menfolk of their original family and later their husband's. Then, so it goes, following the impact of the West, Jewish women gradually got a fairer share in society. In this article, I will examine these assumptions and developments in terms of the status of Jewish women from the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century: What were the attitudes toward girls? How were they educated? What constituted their work? Whom were they in contact with? How did they spend their leisure time? What were the reasons for change? And, how did these changes influence their lives?

Gender-Based Roles

The attitude toward women and the role they play is shaped by the worldview and traditions of the society within which they live, coupled with the particular regional, demographic, and economic conditions. In the Middle East and North Africa, Jewish traditions developed for centuries surrounded by a Muslim society and mostly in the Mediterranean world, with growing influences of the West. During most of the Muslim period, there was a clear division between the women's and the men's worlds: women were in charge of maintaining the integrity of the home from the inside, while men provided the external means for that purpose. Men hardly participated in household tasks, while most women were not income providers. This division of labor had an impact on behavior, culture, religious activity, and education as well as on the contacts between the two worlds and inter-gender relations. Increasing Western penetration--at first in the form of cultural, economic, and social enterprises, and in many instances culminating in political control--as well as political reforms by the local Muslim regimes had a strong impact on developments within the Jewish communities and on the status of women. Changes did not take place simultaneously at all levels of the system and in all regions, causing conflicts of interest and gaps between declared goals and their actual implementation.

During most of the period under review, women's role was perceived as maintaining the household from within, ¹ first as daughters and sisters and later as wives, daughters-in-law, mothers, and mothers-inlaw. Although many responsibilities of the women remained the same, their degree, intensity, and character were also based on the woman's stage within the overall lifecycle. And in order to reach the top within this system, it was not sufficient to be a mother but was necessary to be a mother of sons, thus supplying more outside income providers and controlling more daughters-in-law.

Attitudes toward men and women were different throughout life. The birth of a boy was welcomed and always celebrated with traditional Jewish rites and particular local ones, ² whereas the birth of a girl was rarely celebrated, ³ even deplored. ⁴ In some places, parents who felt they had enough daughters named the new girl accordingly. ⁵ Moreover, a husband could divorce a wife or marry a second one if the first wife did not give birth to a son within a certain period of time (usually 10 years), even if she gave birth to girls. ⁶ Upon death, too, the attitude was different, and ceremonies honoring deceased women were rare.⁷ From an early age men were accustomed to being treated as royalty, with all their wishes fulfilled. ⁸ In many places it was expected that wives would obey their husbands and have no say in the latter's life outside the home, be it their work, recreation, or scholarship. ⁹

Inter-Gender Contacts

The divided worlds had their implications for inter-gender contacts throughout life. Males were part of the women's world only as toddlers; [End Page...