Feminismo e raça nos Estados Unidos Este artigo traça a história do pensamento feminista mainstream dos EUA a partir de uma noção essencialista de feminilidade baseada no modelo normativo das experiências das mulheres brancas da classe média, ao reconhecimento de que as mulheres são, de fato, bastante diversas e vêem Eles de forma diferente. Começa com a questão da construção social do gênero e da suposição feminista dominante que a mulher significa mulher branca de classe média. O desafio a essa suposição é então colocado por mulheres de cor, mulheres pobres, imigrantes, lésbicas e mulheres no terceiro mundo. A Seção Três apresenta as várias formas de inclusão de mulheres negras dentro dos quadros feministas mainstream. Em seguida, trata-se de uma discussão sobre a construção da brancura, os privilégios que a raça atribui a mulheres brancas e as estratégias feministas para superar o racismo no feminismo dominante. A Seção Cinco analisa as lutas das mulheres latinas e asiáticas, as questões específicas de identidade a que se confrontam e como elas se relacionam com o feminismo atual. A Seção Seis discute os desafios colocados ao feminismo mainstream americano pelas feministas do terceiro mundo. As feministas nos EUA trabalharam arduamente para abordar a questão da diferença entre as mulheres, juntamente com o que une as mulheres em contextos de luta comuns. No entanto, o foco na diferença, bem como na identidade, muitas vezes negligencia a vida real de muitas mulheres de cor que não se esforçam tanto para se desiludir de uma determinada identidade, mas com a forma de estabelecer uma em primeiro lugar. Concentrar-se na identidade e na diferença, quer trabalhando para obliterar ou representá-la, também tende a negligenciar as relações de poder que estabelecem, afastar e reunir essas diferenças em primeiro lugar. Este artigo analisa ainda mais como o sexismo e o racismo são problemas estruturais endêmicos da cultura americana. Como tal, eles precisam ser abordados sistematicamente, juntamente com a classe e todos os outros sistemas de dominação. O aspecto estrutural é evidente na facilidade pelo qual o racismo biológico se transforma em racismo cultural, criando atitudes condescendentes e racistas em relação às mulheres do terceiro mundo e uma cegueira da complicidade do primeiro mundo em opressões do terceiro mundo. Como Audre Lorde deixou claro, as ferramentas de mestrado nunca desmantelarão a casa dos mestres. A conclusão explora a forma como as feministas se unem para lutar contra os sistemas de dominação e exploração, e trabalham para desistir dos privilégios legados por esses sistemas, reconhecidamente uma proposta incômoda para aqueles que se beneficiam do poder, desmantelar a casa dos mestres e a multidão de opressões que sustenta. Índice 1. Introdução A questão da diferença tem sido fundamental para o feminismo americano desde o início de um movimento feminino nos Estados Unidos. Quando a Sojourner Truth, uma mulher negra, entrou na convenção feminina predominantemente branca em Akron, Ohio, em 1851, três anos após a primeira Convenção sobre os Direitos da Mulher em Seneca Falls, Nova York, os maxilares caíram. Não era possível ouvir um som. A verdade era uma mulher imponente. Ela tinha quase 6 pés de altura e suportou as cicatrizes de golpes brutais, a venda de seus filhos e a perda de seus próprios pais enquanto ela era vendida em escravidão. Cercado por mulheres brancas afluentes e educadas e por seus adeptos de cavalheiros, sua presença no início agitou o medo, mas acabou por causar um espanto. As mulheres brancas na conferência não queriam mexer sua luta e reivindicar os direitos das mulheres com o assunto desconfortável da raça e os direitos do povo colorido, apesar de sua dívida com os esforços de Fredrick Douglass para manter a controvertida questão do sufrágio das mulheres central na primeira Convenção Em Seneca Falls. No entanto, quando a Verdade se levantou para entrar na conversa, suas palavras, coletadas sob o título Aint I a Woman, não só atraíram forte admiração, mas presagiaram o que viria a ser a questão fundamental do feminismo ocidental: o que exatamente é uma mulher no Discurso intitulado Aint I a Woman, Truth revela as contradições inerentes ao uso e ao significado do termo mulher, e expõe os pressupostos políticos, econômicos e culturais subjacentes ao seu uso. Tomando a plataforma na Convenção em Ohio, ela falou contra as declarações de vários homens. Eles acreditavam que as mulheres deveriam abster-se de um trabalho árduo, tanto físico como mental, para melhor cumprir sua natureza feminina. Mas a Verdade não sabia nada sobre essa chamada natureza que eles abraçaram e engendraram. O que ela sabia era trabalhar e trabalhar tão árduo como qualquer homem poderia suportar. Esse homem lá diz que as mulheres precisam ser ajudadas em carruagens e levantar-se sobre valas e ter o melhor lugar em todos os lugares. Ninguém nunca me ajuda em carruagens, ou em poças de lama, ou me dá qualquer lugar melhor E não é uma mulher Olhe para mim Olhe para o meu braço eu apliquei e plantais e me acordei com celeiros e nenhum homem poderia me dirigir E não é uma mulher que eu poderia trabalhar tanto, e comer tanto quanto o homem - quando eu consegui-lo - e suportar o chicote também E não é uma mulher que eu levei treze crianças e vi a maioria de todos vendidos à escravidão, e Quando eu gritei com um sofrimento materno, ninguém mais que Jesus me ouviu e não é eu, uma mulher (Verdade, 2009). Quase cem anos depois, o questionamento das Verdades pode ser ouvido no desafio de Simone de Beauvoirs, afirmando que o significado da feminilidade é evidente. Em seu trabalho inovador e canônico The Second Sex (1949, 1st English trans. 1953), Beauvoir estabeleceu o curso para o estudo posterior da pergunta da mulher no Ocidente, colocando a questão do gênero em foco. Respondendo ao descontentamento masculino que as mulheres francesas estavam perdendo sua feminilidade e não eram tão femininas como acreditavam que as mulheres russas fossem, Beauvoir se perguntou se alguém nasceu uma mulher ou se, de fato, é preciso se tornar uma mulher através de vários processos de socialização e adoctrinamento. Esta perspectiva crítica levou-a a desafiar completamente a utilidade da categoria de mulher e a perguntar se era, de fato, útil como um termo que representa todas as experiências dos chamados membros do segundo sexo. Talvez nada melhor ilustra as preocupações de Beauvoir sobre a legitimidade e a eficácia da categoria da mulher do que o desenvolvimento do pensamento feminista feminino branco, dos EUA, em relação aos desafios colocados por mulheres de cor, pobres, lésbicas, imigrantes e mulheres de países do terceiro mundo. Ao fazerem ouvir suas vozes, essas mulheres marginalizadas ampliaram o pensamento feminista, mostrando que as ideologias da feminilidade tinham tanto a ver com raça, classe e sexualidade, como tinham a ver com o sexo. 2. Todas as mulheres são as mesmas feministas nos Estados Unidos se propuseram a identificar, expor e subverter os estereótipos de gênero de longa data que foram utilizados para dominar e subordinar as mulheres. Central para qualquer teoria do feminismo, então, é como os termos como mulher, mulher e feminino são interpretados ou mal interpretados. As mulheres pioneiras no movimento sufragista dos EUA falaram e lutaram pelos direitos das mulheres, usando o termo mulher para significar todas as mulheres. O que eles não reconheceram foi que sua noção de feminilidade foi modelada nas experiências e problemas de uma pequena porcentagem de mulheres que, como elas, eram quase exclusivamente brancas, de classe média e relativamente bem-educadas. No entanto, a suposição de que as experiências das mulheres brancas de classe média representaram todas as experiências das mulheres não só foi feita pelos primeiros Sufragistas, mas continuou a moldar o ideal da feminilidade na segunda onda do movimento feminista americano e além. No problema que não tem nome. Um livro que ajudou a inaugurar a segunda onda de feminismo na U. S. Betty Friedan expôs as frustrações ocultas das mulheres que compraram a mística da realização feminina (2001: 24). Negociando suas ambições de carreira para a bem-aventurança prometida de casamento, maternidade e doméstico, muitas mulheres, em vez disso, se viram presas e isoladas atrás de cercas de pique brancas no que Friedan descreveu como a síndrome das famílias domésticas. Mas, o que Friedan também não conseguiu reconhecer era que essa síndrome afetou apenas uma certa minoria de mulheres, ou seja, brancas, de classe média e muitas vezes altamente educadas, como ela mesma. Ela não percebeu que as divisões sexuais binárias e complementares que ela assumiu, a mulher como criadora de pão e o homem como sustentador de família, foram construídas sobre um patriarcado racializado que excluía mulheres de cor, pobres e imigrantes desta mística da feminilidade. Foram essas mulheres que seriam chamadas a deixar seus filhos e lares para cuidar das crianças e casas das mulheres brancas que se libertaram da domesticidade para entrar voluntariamente na força de trabalho. Desconsiderando a vida das mulheres de cor ao assumir que as experiências das mulheres brancas eram representativas da vida de todas as mulheres, Friedan imagina uma unidade entre as experiências das mulheres que simplesmente não existem. De acordo com ganchos de sino, este ideal de solidariedade de gênero é construído com base em uma suposição de mesmice que é apoiada pela idéia de que existe uma opressão comum do patriarcado em torno do qual as mulheres devem se reunir. A idéia de opressão comum era uma plataforma falsa e corrupta, disfarçando e mistificando a verdadeira natureza da realidade social variada e complexa das mulheres (1984: 44). Essa complexidade é especialmente revelada nas vidas de mulheres de cor que devem lidar com formas múltiplas e sobrepostas de opressões - incluindo a opressão de mulheres brancas, que não reconhecem as diferentes lutas que enfrentam as mulheres que não são assim. O pensamento feminista dominante continua a lidar com as inter-relações entre gênero e raça, bem como a classe, o colonialismo, o imperialismo e as questões de orientação sexual no que poderia ser chamado de uma terceira onda de feminismo nos EUA. Mais importante ainda, as críticas às mulheres que Sofreram o máximo de sociedades sexistas - mulheres de cor, pobres, mulheres do terceiro mundo - estão agora na vanguarda de uma política feminista contemporânea e progressista. Assim, para entender os contornos atuais do pensamento feminista dominante nos EUA e a questão da raça, é preciso observar como a teoria e a prática feministas abordaram as diferenças entre as mulheres e as maneiras específicas pelas quais as diferenças nas vidas das mulheres moldaram suas relações Feminismo dos EUA. 3. Feminismo principal e mulheres afro-americanas nos Estados Unidos Os teóricos feministas abordaram a relação de raça e feminismo em pelo menos duas formas diferentes. Uma abordagem é ver a raça como parte integrante do gênero e explorar as formas em que a identidade de gênero é construída em relação à raça e como a identidade racial é igualmente construída em relação ao gênero. O outro segue um método pelo qual as vozes das mulheres de cor são adicionadas ao currículo convencional de uma maneira separada, mas igual. Esta última abordagem foi chamada de abordagem aditiva. Porque simplesmente acrescenta as vozes daqueles historicamente excluídos do canon feminista dominante, mas não examina a constituição dessas vozes dentro dos contextos de poder que lhes deram origem, traz o risco de essencializar gênero e raça, ou assumindo estas Categorias a serem corrigidas e atemporais. Com relação ao primeiro, Jacquelyn Dowd Hal destaca as interconexões de raça e gênero em sua discussão de linchamento. Hal mostra que o linchamento não era apenas usado para impor contratos trabalhistas, manter a etiqueta racial e o status quo socioeconômico, mas também foi efetivo na reinscrição de papéis de gênero entre os brancos. Os homens brancos se moldam como protetores de mulheres brancas, protegendo-os da ameaça presumida de proeza sexual masculina negra, ao mesmo tempo que asseguram a adesão das mulheres brancas aos ideais de castidade e feminilidade (Brooks-Higginbootham, 1989: 132). Esses ideais foram novamente reinscritos pelas mulheres brancas em suas percepções e acusações sobre a sexualidade masculina negra. Ida B. Wells fez a mesma observação, argumentando que os homens brancos mantiveram sua posse sobre os corpos das mulheres brancas usando-os como o terreno para linhagem de machos negros (Carby, 1986: 309). Surpreende, então, que, ao juntar-se a campanhas anti-linchamento, as mulheres brancas não só defendiam os machos negros, mas simultaneamente reagiam contra o cavalheirismo do sul e seus papéis como objetos sexuais frágeis (Brooks-Higginbootham, 1989: 133). A abordagem mais popular da questão da raça e do feminismo, no entanto, parece ter sido a abordagem aditiva. Em frente a uma crítica feminista negra (1977), Barbara Smith embarca em uma jornada que ela não afirma que nenhum homem ou mulher já passou antes: documentar a experiência e a cultura das mulheres negras, enquanto forneceu às mulheres negras um recurso para ler sobre suas vidas. É irritante que as feministas ostensíveis e as lésbicas reconhecidas tenham sido tão cegas às implicações de qualquer feminilidade que não seja feminilidade branca e que ainda têm que lutar com o racismo profundo em si mesmos que está na origem dessa cegueira (Carby, 1992: 158). Smith acredita que é necessário recuperar os escritos das mulheres negras e colocá-las antes dos críticos literários feministas negros que são capazes de interpretar essas experiências de escritores. Ela argumenta que as escritoras de mulheres negras compartilham uma singular tradição de estilos, temas e estética que estão enraizados em uma cultura de opressão compartilhada. Além disso, ela acredita que esses temas são expressos em uma linguagem feminina excepcionalmente negra que é acessível apenas para críticos literários feministas negros que simplesmente precisam se virar para dentro ou para suas próprias experiências vivas, para decifrar as mensagens contadas por escritoras de mulheres negras (Carby , 1992: 164). Com sua idéia de romance de uma política de identidade, Smith passou a formar a coletiva feminina lesbiana feminina Combahee River Collective em Boston. A declaração coletiva do rio Combahee (1986), juntamente com esta ponte chamada My Back, Writings by Radical Women of Color, publicada dois anos antes, deu voz a mulheres de cor e serviu de textos primários dos quais mulheres brancas e mulheres de cor Desenhe discussões sobre raça e gênero. Na Declaração de Combahee, o Coletivo explicou sua necessidade de organizar e se juntar como mulheres negras em um movimento para mulheres negras. Nós percebemos que as únicas pessoas que se preocupam o suficiente com relação a nós para trabalhar de forma consistente para nossa libertação são nós. Nossa política evolui de um amor saudável para nós mesmos, nossas irmãs e nossa comunidade, o que nos permite continuar nossa luta e nosso trabalho (1995: 21-22). Os movimentos apenas em preto trabalharam para elevar a auto-estima das mulheres negras e abordar problemas específicos que enfrentam todos os negros. Angela Davis também descreve como, apesar dos elementos sexistas e heterosexistas do Movimento Nacionalista Negro, deu-lhe um quadro para se entender como bela e valiosa. Além disso, o nacionalismo negro também serviu para combater imagens racistas de afro-americanos, fornecendo imagens positivas da África. Eu consegui construir um espaço psicológico dentro do qual eu pudesse me sentir bem comigo mesmo. Eu poderia comemorar meu corpo (especialmente meu cabelo de fralda, que eu sempre ataquei com um pente quente na reclusão ritual), minhas proclividades musicais e meus padrões de fala suprimidos, entre outras coisas. Isso me distanciou das pessoas brancas ao meu redor enquanto simultaneamente controlava a distância Sempre senti-me por eles (1992: 319). Patricia Hill Collins invoca a noção de linguagem feminina negra compartilhada e destaca uma tradição comum que volta à idéia de uma consciência africana. No entanto, ela adverte contra a criação de uma voz feminina excepcionalmente negra, ou categoria de experiência, por medo de se deslizar para uma perspectiva essencialista que, em última instância, pode ser contraproducente. Ela reconhece que a identificação de um pensamento feminista negro assume problemática que ser negro e feminino gera certas experiências que determinam automaticamente as variantes de uma consciência negra e feminista (1991: 21). Ainda assim, Collins sustenta que as mulheres negras têm certas perspectivas que surgem de uma experiência compartilhada, juntamente com uma relação diferente com a produção do conhecimento que dão origem a um ponto de vista feminista excepcionalmente negro (1991: 21-22). Collins baseia-se na estratégia feminista dominante da teoria do ponto de vista de que Nancy Hartsock ajudou a desenvolver a visão de Karl Marx de que as condições materiais da estrutura de existência viviam experiências. Uma teoria de ponto de vista argumenta que o lugar a partir do qual se mantém influencia a perspectiva ou visão que tem do mundo e, além disso, que aqueles que são mais oprimidos são capazes de fornecer uma perspectiva mais ampla e clara em toda a sociedade e relações sociais Hartsock, 1999). Collins acredita que qualquer ponto de vista feminista negro deve levar em conta a dominação branca, a luta concomitante pela autodefinição e a visão de mundo afrocêntrica que ajuda os negros a lidar com a dominação racial. Este Afrocentrismo, afirma Collins, existiu antes e é independente da opressão racial. Além disso, deu origem a tradições de narração e narrativa que valorizam a experiência concreta, vivida, bem como a comunidade e irmandade das mulheres negras (1991: 206, 212). A versão de Collins do feminismo de ponto de vista, portanto, concentra-se em experiências vivas concretas que têm suas raízes nas tradições orais africanas, famílias negras, igrejas e outras organizações negras. Mas mesmo a idéia desse relato atenuado de uma identidade negra negra essencial não está bem com muitas mulheres negras. Por exemplo, Hazel Carby vê a idéia de crítica feminista negra, bem como qualquer noção de consciência feminista especificamente negra, como um problema e não como uma solução. Ela traça esse problema para os processos pelos quais se encontra uma legitimação acadêmica, visando encaixar-se em determinados intervalos alocados que estão abertos para discussões de identidade racial e de gênero nos currículos convencionais. Carby defende a necessidade de examinar o racismo e o sexismo não como categorias trans-históricas e essencialistas, mas como práticas históricas enredadas com conjuntos evolutivos de práticas sociais, políticas e econômicas que funcionam para manter o poder em um determinado contexto e sociedade (1989: 18). Qualquer ênfase na elaboração da teoria do ponto de vista, afirma Carby, sanciona a segregação e a guetização da raça e do gênero, ao mesmo tempo em que postula as mulheres brancas como padrão normativo (1992: 193). Além disso, Carby acredita que esta abordagem suplementar, que consiste simplesmente em adicionar as experiências e os escritos de mulheres de cor ao cânone feminista mainstream estabelecido, não resolverá os problemas de exclusão do feminismo dominante, mas irá reificar novamente as diferenças. Joan Scott faz eco dessas observações e adverte as mulheres contra o fato de confiar em uma implantação de experiência sem crítica para contar suas histórias. Ao assumir que a experiência é auto-evidente e transparente, uma naturaliza a diferença e deixa sem exame os mecanismos constitutivos segundo os quais as experiências dos povos foram historicamente construídas por redes relacionais de poder e múltiplas opressões (1991: 25-26). Esses mecanismos são estruturais e institucionais. Portanto, são mais difíceis de identificar e erradicar. Para atender adequadamente as raízes do racismo no movimento feminista, as mulheres devem, portanto, reconhecer que qualquer tentativa de universalizar suas experiências colide, não apenas com ideologias de feminilidade branca, mas também com as normas masculinas brancas dominantes e privilegiadas. A proeminência dada à experiência das mulheres brancas, segundo Carby, não é um acidente. As mulheres brancas são visíveis porque são as mulheres que os homens brancos vêem (1986: 302). Levar em consideração os contextos históricos e políticos que definem o gênero revela as construções raciais que estruturam a vida dos brancos e das pessoas de cor. Muitas mulheres negras, especialmente as excluídas do movimento Sufragista anterior, foram ainda mais longe e estabeleceram um vínculo explícito entre imperialismo, racismo e patriarcado. Este link foi cimentado na 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition em Chicago, onde um grupo de mulheres negras que pensaram que estavam lá para representar a vida das mulheres americanas, fazia parte de exposições com povos exóticos, que ainda alimentavam estereótipos racistas e Medos (Carby, 1986). Posteriormente, essas mulheres reconheceram a necessidade de formar suas próprias organizações nacionais. Em 1896, uma série de grupos de mulheres negras se fundiram na Associação Nacional de Mulheres Coloridas (NACW), liderada por Josephine Ruffin e Mary Church Terrell. Seus membros incluíram Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper e Ida Bell Wells-Barnett. Harper e Anna J Cooper, a quarta mulher afro-americana a obter um doutorado nos Estados Unidos viu uma ligação inseparável entre o imperialismo, a opressão racial doméstica e o poder patriarcal desenfreado. Cooper escreve em A Voz do Sul: Por Uma Mulher do Sul (1892): De onde veio essa apoteose de ganância e crueldade. Daí, essa admiração furtiva que todos nós temos para valentões e combatentes de prémios. Daí o auto-parabéns das raças dominantes, como se fosse dominante Significava justo e carregava com ele um título para herdar a Terra. De onde o desprezo das raças ou indivíduos chamados de raça ou fraqueza e a certeza muito confortável de que é seu destino manifesto ser aniquilado como uma lágrima antes da civilização avançada (Carby, 1986: 305). As observações de Coopers chegaram 40 anos depois de Arthur de Gobineau declarar em The Desigualdad de Races, que, de fato, os africanos eram incapazes de civilização porque não tinham o impulso ou a ambição de conquistar seus vizinhos, mas sim viviam lado a lado com total independência de cada um Outro (Bernasconi, 2000: 47). Foi esse impulso conquistador que Gobineau argumentou que a civilização européia era tão avançada, em contraste com o atraso dos africanos, que praticavam a convivência harmoniosa com seus vizinhos. Em reconhecimento das vantagens que a raça conferiu às mulheres brancas, muitas feministas embarcaram em análises de raça e gênero que se movem para um reconhecimento de privilégios brancos e injustiça racial. As feministas também trabalharam para desenvolver estratégias para abordar o racismo branco e identificar diferenciais de poder entre mulheres, entre homens e mulheres brancas e homens de cor. 4. Privilégio branco e a questão do racismo no feminismo mainstream dos EUA Em 1988, inspirado no modelo de como os homens ganham vantagem pela desvantagem das mulheres, Peggy McIntosh começou a documentar algumas das maneiras pelas quais mulheres brancas se beneficiaram do racismo. Tendo observado como os homens foram ensinados a não reconhecer seu privilégio masculino, McIntosh explorou algumas das avenidas inconscientes que permitem que as mulheres brancas não reconheçam seu privilégio de pele não consumada (2008: 63). Os brancos são ensinados a pensar em suas vidas como moralmente neutras, normativas e médias, e também ideais, de modo que, quando trabalhamos para beneficiar os outros, esse trabalho é visto como um trabalho que lhes permitirá ser mais como nós (2008: 63) . O posicionamento de brancos como a norma é visto por Anna Stubblefield como fundamental para garantir a superioridade dos brancos. A ideologia da supremacia branca é que a brancura define a brancura padrão é normativa, de modo que qualquer coisa simbólica ou associada à escuridão é, portanto, desviadora (2005: 74). McIntosh descreve como se ensinou a considerar o racismo como preconceito ou fanatismo e a subscrever atos discriminatórios de crueldade a indivíduos isolados, em vez de reconhecer sistemas invisíveis que confiram dominação racial ao meu grupo desde o nascimento (2008: 68). Ela lista as vantagens não aproveitadas que vêm de ser um membro do grupo dominante, como o conforto que vem de estar em situações que refletem a visão de mundo, os valores e os ideais dos brancos. O privilégio branco varia entre os pais brancos com confiança que seus filhos receberão materiais educacionais destacando as realizações e contribuições de sua raça, não atribuindo atos de injustiça aos preconceitos raciais e não tendo que representar um grupo racial particular. Marilyn Frye discute ainda o privilégio de que os brancos devem definir ou determinar como os outros irão vê-los. Mais especificamente, ela contrasta as imagens e os ideais que os brancos têm de si mesmos com as formas em que são vistos por homens e mulheres de cor para sublinhar a disparidade nas percepções (2001: 85). Como os brancos são ensinados que são morais, honestos e justos, eles acreditam que eles são capazes e responsáveis por ensinar aos outros sobre o que é certo e errado. Essa confiança é construída sobre um corpo de princípios, códigos e regras ocidentais estabelecidos que presumem garantir a correção de seus julgamentos morais. No entanto, essas autodescrições do grupo racial dominante não são compartilhadas pela maioria das pessoas de cor que vêem muitos brancos como se comportando de forma arbitrária, ou de maneiras egoístas, violentas e muitas vezes opressivas. Em The Whiteeness Question (2005), Linda Alcoff argumenta que a chave para superar o racismo consiste em um confronto com os processos psíquicos de formação da identidade. Traçando as origens da brancura à dominação e à exploração, Alcoff afirma que a brancura é inseparável da sujeição, denigração, objetivação e repúdio daqueles que são percebidos como não brancos. A própria genealogia da brancura estava entrelaçada desde o início com uma hierarquia racial, que pode ser encontrada em todas as principais narrativas culturais de Cristóvão Colombo ao Destino Manifesto para a Raça Espacial e a Revolução da Computadora (2005). Antes do conceito de raça originada no século 16, várias populações de pessoas identificavam e estruturavam suas comunidades de várias formas que não incluíam referência à cor da pele. As origens da categoria de raça são, de fato, as origens da expansão e opressão européias contra africanos, asiáticos, povos indígenas das Américas e Austrália, e até muçulmanos. De acordo com G. W.F. Hegel, são apenas os europeus ou, mais precisamente, os cristãos capazes de alcançar o mais alto nível de razão e espiritualidade distanciando-se do absoluto através da racionalidade. Os africanos não conseguem atualizar essas maiores faculdades mentais e espirituais porque fetichizam o absoluto, objetivando-o em relíquias que, então, jogam fora quando seu fetiche não consegue ajudar. Os muçulmanos também, apesar de serem bem-sucedidos em elevar Deus acima do nível do sensual, são incapazes de trazer Deus de volta à terra e unir o universal com o concreto e, portanto, não conseguem atingir um motivo autoconsciente (Bernasconi, 2000). Alcoff, portanto, conclui que a auto-estima e a identidade coletiva branca estão enraizadas nas formas de supremacia branca. Assim, libertar-se da ideologia racista pode não ser uma tarefa tão fácil para os brancos, pois ameaça os próprios fundamentos de seu orgulho e amor próprio. Esta ameaça surge do reconhecimento de que as conquistas históricas e o legado de recursos culturais a partir dos quais se desenha uma identidade branca são imersos em práticas de opressão racial e de dominação. Conseqüentemente, renunciar ao racismo significa não só desistir dos privilégios e benefícios reais que estão associados ao ser branco, mas pode envolver a remoção de vínculos com uma história cultural sobre a qual a estima pessoal e o próprio eu são fundamentados. Sentimentos de histeria, vergonha e ansiedade muitas vezes acompanham esse intervalo. No entanto, pertencer a uma história é crucial para a estima e a identidade. Alcoff, portanto, sugere uma forma de dupla consciência branca que passa de um reconhecimento de práticas de dominação, exploração e discriminação para uma memória recém-despertada de muitos traidores brancos para privilégios brancos que lutaram para contribuir para a construção de um ser humano inclusivo comunidade. Os Michelangelos estão ao lado do Christopher Columbuses e Michael Moores ao lado dos Pat Buchanans (2005). A inter-relação entre a identidade branca e a supremacia branca levou alguns brancos anti-racistas, mais notavelmente Noel Ignatiev, a avançar e a exigir a abolição geral da raça branca: a traição à brancura é lealdade à humanidade (1997). Marilyn Frye também defende uma desassociação da brancura ao exigir que os brancos se retirem do clube que ela chama de indignação (2001: 85). As próprias condições para a negação da brancura, uma negação de identidade que algumas mulheres de cor apontam é apenas para brancos, baseia-se na compreensão de que a raça é algo socialmente construído. Frye explica que ser branco é como ser membro de um partido político, ou de um clube, ou de uma fraternidade ou ser metodista ou mórmon (2001: 85). A possibilidade de renunciar à brancura, portanto, envolve o reconhecimento de sua contingência e depende do repúdio das práticas que decorrem da promulgação, incorporação e animação da brancura. Transformar a consciência é um passo para eliminar a brancura. No entanto, Frye e McIntosh estão claramente conscientes de que a reflexão e a reorientação abordam apenas uma fração dos problemas associados à raça, uma vez que a maioria delas é teimosamente estrutural e institucional. Ainda assim, Linda Gordon teme que uma falha em começar a abordar esses problemas difíceis apenas contribua para legitimar mais os mesmos brancos falando apenas sobre si mesmos (1991). Sarita Srivastava está igualmente infeliz com a direção que as discussões de raça tomaram na medida em que eles tendem para o auto-exame branco e as construções de brancura. Quando a análise da raça e do racismo ocorre nas organizações feministas, a ênfase, ela descobre, muitas vezes cai na culpa branca e não na mudança organizacional. Isso resulta em estratégias egocêntricas dos brancos para corrigir sua auto-imagem moral, uma imagem que sustenta desigualdades e, argumenta Srivastava, está enraizada nos próprios fundamentos do feminismo, do imperialismo e do nacionalismo que são o alvo da mudança. (2005 : 36). Em vez de trabalhar diretamente para alterar a ordem da opressão racial, as mulheres brancas, em vez disso, se esforçam para simpatizar com as vítimas. A empatia serve para ressaltar a bondade das mulheres brancas e transforma a natureza essencialmente sócio-política do problema em uma mais pessoal. Esta prática reforça ainda mais décadas de práticas racistas e colonialistas ao validar a autoridade moral das mulheres brancas e sua crença de que de alguma forma foram confiados a responsabilidade de educar e libertar os menos civilizados (2005: 44). Assim, Srivastava argumenta que as mulheres brancas não conseguem confrontar seu próprio racismo genuinamente, concentrando-se na culpa e, ao fazê-lo, mantêm as desigualdades de poder. Ela cita uma mulher de cores frustração sobre a recusa das mulheres brancas em considerar seu racismo durante as discussões políticas sobre o tema da raça. A resposta indignada, a raiva, a raiva que se transforma em lágrimas, o pé pisoteando, o bermuda, que são respostas muito típicas ao chamado racista. Every single organization that I have been in, every single one. So I realized that it wasnt about meafter awhile laughter (2005: 42-43). Alcoff further shows how white feminists distance themselves from a serious critique of racism by focusing on behavior modification, rather than challenging oppressive institutional structures and calling for wealth redistribution. In her analysis of Judith Katzs White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training (Katz 1978), Alcoff describes Katzs depiction of how she came to terms with the depth of her own racism as a painful, demoralizing process that threatened her self-trust. While Katz warns against wallowing in white guilt, she nonetheless links anti-racism to psychological liberation while, at the same time, distancing herself from the workings and mechanisms of racist practices that are endemic to the culture. The focus on difference and overcoming of difference, either by obliterating or representing it, tends to neglect the power relations that establish, hold apart, and bring together such differences in the first place. Concentrating on identity and difference also overlooks the actual lives of many women of color who struggle, not so much with how to disabuse themselves of a certain identity, but, to the contrary, with how to establish an identity in the first place. 5. ChicanaLatina and Asian American Women and U. S. Mainstream Feminism Struggling to negotiate and come to terms with an identity, many women of color are not as eager as white women to give up their racial or ethnic distinctiveness. To be oppressed, Norma Alarcon explains, means to be disenabled not only from grasping an identity, but also from reclaiming it (1995:364). Moreover, specific histories of oppressions have positioned women differently with regard to gender roles and the family. Cherrie Moraga describes how Latina womens relationships to ideals of gender and motherhood have been uniquely shaped by colonization. Accompanying European expansion and colonization, was the concomitant threat of genocide. The fear of extinction strengthened the commitment to traditional family ideals and roles, such as encouraging women to be pregnant and assuming males at the head of the household. At all costs, la familia must be preservedWe believe the more severely we protect the sex roles with the family, the stronger we will be as a unity in opposition to the anglo threat (1995:181). Consequently, Moraga explains, Latina feminists relation to gender roles and the structure of the family confront a very particular kind of resistance. While mainstream feminists are challenging traditional sex roles of men and women, some Latina feminists, due to their certain histories of colonization, seek to preserve these roles. Thus, Latina womens concerns are often foreign to, and often in direct opposition to, mainstream white feminists who seek to abolish or overcome conventional forms of gender identity, especially within the family. U. S. immigration policies and discriminatory practices against Asian Americans have also sometimes lead to the embracing of gender ideals among Asian American women that are in opposition to the ideals of many white feminists in the U. S. Ester Ngan-Ling Chow shows how racism, colonialism, and imperialism have worked to position Asian American women differently toward Asian American men, feminism, and Westernization. Addressing the apparent lack of feminist consciousness and activism in Asian American women, she attributes this deficit to ethnic pride and solidarity with Asian American men to end racial discrimination against Asians in the U. S. Asian American men, for example, often view Asian American womens engagement with mainstream U. S. feminism as a threat to the Asian American community. Chow also points to specific Asiatic values of obedience, filial duty, loyalty, fatalism, and self-control that encourage forms of submissiveness among Asian American women that are incompatible with American values of individualism and self-assertiveness. The force of traditional Asian values contributes to the particularity of Asian American womens struggles, and work to distance their struggle from the concerns of the mainstream, white feminist movement. These differences, among others, are why Chow states: The development of feminist consciousness for Asian American women cannot be judged or understood through the experience of White women (1991:266). Yen Le Espiritu further discusses the complexities surrounding the intersections of race, class, and gender confronting Asian American women. Regrettably, some Asian American women find themselves victims of the discrimination faced by Asian American men. Among other things, Espiritu writes, racial ideology defines Asian American men as feminine and weaka rendering that incidentally works to confirm the notion that manhood is white. Frustrated also by the higher value placed on Asian American womens employability, some Asian American men try to assert their power by physically abusing the women and children in their lives. Breathing humor into these problems of physical abuse, Espiritu draws upon a joke that gets a laugh from both men and women. When we get on the plane to go back to Laos, the first thing we will do is beat up the women (Espiritu, 1997: 136). Despite the discriminations Asian American women endure within their community, they too often find it difficult to juggle between the desire to expose male privilege, and the desire to unite with men in their shared struggle against prejudice and discrimination. Gloria Anzaldua describes the particular ways that a feminist consciousness is developed by Latina women who many times find themselves struggling to arrive at a positive image of themselves. She explains how an internalization of racism and colonialist mentality has given rise to shame, self-hatred, and abuse of other Latina women in various communities. Self-hatred and the hatred one has towards others like oneself are further ignited by jostling for the limited positions of superiority that are open to women of color. Here is where ethnic and cultural identity begin to be conflated with race and purported biological distinctions. In the early phases of colonialism, European colonizers flexed their powers overtly in order to destroy the fabric, legal codes, cultural systems, mannerisms, language and habits of the colonized under the guise of civilizing the savage natives. Slowly, local inhabitants internalized Western values, attitudes, and ways of life, including racialized thinking that resulted in a desire for some Latin Americans to become more white and reject their indigenous cultures. Like them we try to impose our version of the ways things should be, we try to impose ones self on the Other by making her the recipient of ones negative elements, usually the same elements that the Anglo projected on us (1995: 143). More graphically, Anzaldua alludes to how the forced cultural penetration of rape has, so to speak, inseminated white values into the bodies of women of color (1995:143). A Latina woman with lighter skin who does not speak the language of her ancestors is often held suspect by other Latina women and cast out of the community. Anzaldua attributes this exclusionary practice to an internalized whiteness that desperately wants boundary lines (this part of me is Mexican, this Indian). (1995: 143). In opposition to the Enlightenment fantasy of a uniform and self-contained subject, Anzaldua introduces the concept of mestiza consciousness, a consciousness of the Borderlands that captures the multiplicity and plurality of Latina consciousness. From this racial, ideological, cultural and biological cross-pollinization, an alien consciousness is presently in the makinga new mestiza consciousness, una conciencia de mujer (2008: 870). Writing primarily in English but peppering her discussion of mestiza consciousness with phrases in Spanish, Anzaldua puts the non-Spanish reader in an uncomfortable position, paralleling the discomfort felt by many immigrants who are confronted with a language they dont understand. In this way, Anzaldua describes and invokes an appreciation of the inner conflict that those straddling two or more cultures, languages, and value systems experience. She provides a provocative illustration of warring cultures that produce in their subjects a psychic restlessness (2008). The notion of a splintered personality brought on by a collision of cultures is also addressed by Alcoff, who proposes a positive reconstruction of mixed race identities whereby one finds comfort in ambiguity and a contentment with living the gap (2000:160). I never reach shore: I never wholly occupy either the Angla or the Latina identity. Paradoxically, in white society I feel my Latinness, in Latin society I feel my whiteness, as that which is left out, an invisible present, sometimes as intrusive as an elephant in the room and sometimes more as a pulled thread that alters the design of my fabricated self (2000:160). Maria Lugones gives a phenomenological description of what it is like to shift between identities as a person of mixed race or a hyphenated identity. When voluntarily embraced, she calls this practice of shifting identities world traveling. Those of us who are world - travelers have the distinct experience of being different in different worlds and ourselves in them (1995: 396). Lugones concept of world traveling arose out of her awareness of the different levels of comfort she experiences in embodying different identities in distinct worlds. In some worlds, Lugones observes she is more playful and not overly concerned with how others view her. However, while inhabiting a world in which her identity is constructed negatively, or strictly on the basis of her ethnicity, she finds she is less playful and may even begin to animate self-defeating stereotypes. Shifting in and out of various worlds, Lugones advocates a strategy whereby women attempt to empathize with each other by trying to stand in one anothers shoes. Laurence Thomas, to the contrary, warns against such a strategy that asks people who are so differently positioned within society to try to identify with each others experiences. Instead, he introduces the model of moral deference: the act of listening that is preliminary to bearing witness to anothers moral pain, but without bearing witness to it (1986: 377). In this stance, the one suffering has the platform and the one listening, who does not inhabit the same socially constituted identity, cedes the platform by recognizing the incommensurability of his or her experience of the others pains and struggles. It is this respect rooted in an acknowledgment of the irreducibility of lived experiencethat is at the heart of Third World Womens appeal to Western Feminists. 6. Third World Feminisms and Mainstream Feminism in the U. S. Significantly, the concerns raised by women of color in the U. S. are almost identically replayed by third world women, in what might be called a shift from biological to cultural racism. However, instead of fighting against a cultural norm of white womanhood, third world feminists are fighting to assert their difference in opposition to a monolithic and dominant notion of Western feminism that is increasingly gaining legitimacy by controlling how women in the third world are represented. Chandra Talpade Mohanty raises awareness of the impact of Western Scholarship on third world women in a context of a world system dominated by the West. (1991:53). She encourages Western feminist scholarship to situate itself within the current Western hegemony over the production, publication, distribution, and consumption of information, and to examine its role within this context (1991:55). In her analysis of the representations of third world women in nine texts in the Zed Press Women in the Third World series, Mohanty finds that in almost all these texts women are monolithically represented as victims of an unchanging patriarchy. These representations uproot women from their lived situations and the practices that shape, and are shaped by them. The crucial point that is forgotten is that women are produced through these very relations as well as being implicated in forming these relations (1991:59). When womens lives and struggles are not historically and locally situated, they are robbed of their political agency. Those, then, writing about third world women become the true subjects of this counterhistory (1991:71). Western scholarship must, therefore, recognize the ethnocentric universalism it assumes in encoding and representing all third world women as victims of an ahistorical and decontextualized notion of patriarchy that results in a homogenous notion of the oppressed third world women. Only when feminist thinkers examine their role within Western dominations can genuine progress be made. Uma Narayan highlights the facticity of womens historical situations in her exposition of the particularities that women in the third world confront in participating in a feminist movement. Because of the histories of colonialism and imperialism, suspicions against feminist movements as possible instruments of colonial domination surround attempts made by women to organize for change. Specifically, Narayan explores how the term Westernization is used to silence critiques by third world feminists regarding the status and treatment of women in their communities. Ironically, it is Western educated and assimilated men in the third world that are spearheading these attacks against third world feminists by accusing them of disrespecting their culture and embracing Western values and customs. Narayan rejects the implication that feminism is foreign to the third world, noting that historical and political circumstances that raise awareness of womens oppression give rise to a feminist consciousness that is organic to third world womens lives. Minoo Moallem locates a feminist imperialism in Western womens desire to enlighten third world women to the civilizing project of the West, wherein first world women become the norm and third world women get constructed as a singular, non-Western other (2006). Elora Shehabuddin identifies a feminist imperialism in Western womens attempt to position themselves as the saviors of Muslim women, thereby ignoring womens voices fighting to make change within the Muslim world In presenting change in the Muslim world as possible only with the intervention from the United Stateseither by force through the violent eradication of oppressive Muslim men or the less dramatic support of moderate Muslim groups and individualsthese writers foreclose the possibility of change from within Muslim societies (2018: 121). Ignoring the racism inherent in colonialist narratives documenting the oppression of Muslim women by Muslim men, Shehabuddin points out, Western feminists are content to draw on stories of abuse by a few vocal Muslim escapees as representative of the victimization of all Muslim women. What seems to be the primary concern of these Western feminists is not the actual lives of women in the Muslim world, but the assertion of their own moral authority, exercised in presumably righting the sexism in the Islamic world. In this way, Western feminists repeat and redirect their racism and condescension toward Muslim women and third world women in general, while conveniently avoiding the sexism and oppression in their own backyards. The remedy to cultural racism is an acknowledgement of it and a commitment to displace Eurocentricism by actually listening to womens experiences, and engaging women in the hopes of opening up a dialogue. Shehabuddin writes: In the end, the only way to find out what Muslim women want is to listen to them, not by assuming their needs and concerns are self-evident because they identify as Muslims and not by taking a small group of vocal, articulate individualswhose opinions on issues like Israel and the war on terror are more acceptableas the representative and authentic voices (2018: 132). 7. Conclusion: There is No Hierarchy of Oppressions The history of U. S. feminist thought has evolved from an essentialist notion of womanhood based on the normative model of middle-class white womens experiences to a recognition that women are, in fact, quite diverse and see themselves differently. The real problem of feminism, states Elizabeth Spellman, is how it has confused the condition of one group of women with the condition of all women (1988:15 ). In assuming that the experiences of middle-class white women represented the lives of all women, a false unity and solidarity among women was presupposed. Taking account of the multiple and overlapping forms of oppression that many women, especially women of color and third world women must negotiate, reveals the complexity and diversity of womens lives. Women of color in the U. S. for example, not only define themselves in a struggle against white men and men of color, but also in resistance to white women. The same holds for third world women who find themselves fighting against the omission of their experiences and the overarching assumptions made by first world feminists regarding their needs and the forms of subordination they confront. Moving away from a monolithic notion of woman, U. S. feminist theory and practice engages difference by focusing on context-specific positionings of women in relation to other constantly changing categories. But some women worry that without a commonality uniting women the power to make changes will be lost. To address the complexity of the multitude of oppressions confronting women, Mohanty suggests a model based on imagined communities of women organized by the way we think about race, class, and genderthe political links we choose to make among and between struggles (1991:4). In these communities, political alliances are formed not by a persons race or sex, but on the basis of common contexts of struggle against specific exploitative structures. (1991:7) Today, U. S. mainstream feminism is engaged with recognizing diversity and forming cross-cultural coalitions against injustices. The recognition of difference, however, is not complete without a further commitment to making institutional change. Like sexism, racism is a problem that is structural and endemic to American culture and needs to be addressed systematically, along with class and all other systems of domination. As Robert Bernasconi notes, Personal attitudes are not the main source of the problem and they cannot provide the solution (2005: 20). The structural aspect is evident in the ease by which biological racism morphs into cultural racism, spawning condescending and racist attitudes toward third world women and a blindness of first world complicity in various forms of third world oppressions. Indeed, as Audre Lorde has made clear, the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house. However, by waging struggles against systems of domination and exploitation and assuming responsibility to actively give up the privileges bequeathed by these systems, admittedly an uncomfortable proposition, U. S. feminists embark upon dismantling the masters house and the multitude of oppressions that it sustains. Still, a change in personal attitudes does go a long way. When mainstream feminists recognize the interconnections between gender, race, nationalism and class, Espiritu writes, then they can better work with, and not for, women (and men) of color (Espiritu, 1997: 140). In sum, feminists in the U. S. have worked arduously to address the question of difference among women, as well as what unites women in common contexts of struggle. In the early twentieth century, Emma Goldman wrote of the significance of recognizing and respecting differences, while at the same time working together in spite of these differences to challenge institutional inequalities that prevent individuals from living together in a free society. Goldman laid out a vision for a way forward that goes beyond the mere tolerance of difference when she said: The problem that confronts us today and which the nearest future is to solve, is how to be ones self and yet in oneness with the others, to feel deeply with all human beings and still retain ones own characteristic qualities (1973: 509). 8. References and Further Reading Alarcon, N. The Theoretical Subject(s) of This Bridge Called My Back and Anglo-American Feminism in Making Face, Making SoulHaciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color . (ed.) Anzaldua, G. Aunt Lute Books, 1995. Alcoff, L. Chapter 9: The Whiteness Question Linda Martin-Alcoff . 2005. Alcoff, L. The Idea of Race, (eds.) Bernasconi, R. and Lott, T. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2000. Anzaldua, G. La Conciencia de la MestizaTowards a New Consciousness, in The Feminist Philosophy Reader . (eds.) Bailey, A. and Cuomo, C. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. Anzaldua, G. En Rapport, In Opposition: Cobrando cuentas a las neustras, in Making Face, Making SoulHaciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color . (ed.) Anzaldua, G. Aunt Lute Books, 1995. Bernasconi, R. Waking up White and in Memphis in White on WhiteBlack on Black (ed.) Yancy, G. Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2005. Brooks-Higginbotham, E. The Problem of Race in Womens History, in Coming to Terms: Feminism, Theory, Politics, (ed.) Weed, E. New York: Routledge, 1989. Carby, H. On the Threshold of Womans Era: Lynching, Empire, and Sexuality in Black Feminist Theory, in Race, Writing and Difference . (ed) Gates, H. L, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1986. Carby, H. The Multicultural Wars, in Black Popular Culture . (ed.) Dent, G. Bay Press: Washington, 1992. Carby, H. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist, U. S.A: Oxford University Press, 1989 Collins, P. H. Black Feminist Thought, New York: Routledge, 1991. Combahee River Collective, A Black Feminist Statement The Combahee River Collective in Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought . (ed) Guy-Sheftall, B. New Press, 1995. Davis, A. Black Nationalism: The Sixties and the Nineties, in Black Popular Culture . (ed.) Dent, G. Bay Press: Washington, 1992. Espiritu, Yen Le, Race, Class and Gender in Asian America in Making More Waves: New Writings by Asian American Women, eds. Elaine H. Kim, Lilia V. Villanueva, and Asian Women United of California . Beacon Press Books: Boston, 1997. Friedan, B. The Feminine Mystique . New York: Dell Publishing Inc. 1974. Frye, M. White Woman Feminist 1983-1992, in Race and Racism . (ed.), B. Boxill, U. S.A: Oxford University Press, 2001. de Gobineau, A. The Inequality of Human Races, in The Idea of Race (eds.) Bernasconi, R. and Lott, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2000. Goldman, E. The Tragedy of Womans Emancipation, in The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir . (ed.) Ross, A. S. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1973. Gordon, L. On Difference, Genders 10, Spring 1991. Grande, S. Whitestream Feminism and the Colonialist Project: A Review of Contemporary Feminist Pedagogy and Praxis, Educational Theory . Summer 2003,Volume 53, Number 3. Hartsock, Nancy, The Feminist Standpoint Revisited, And Other Essays (Basic Books, 1999), pp. 105-133. Hooks, b. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center . Boston: South End Press, 1984. Ignatiev, N. The Point Is Not To Interpret Whiteness But To Abolish It in Race Traitor . Ed. Noel Ignatiev, 1997. Lorde, A. The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masters House, in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color . (eds.) Moraga, C. and Anzaldua, Kitchen Table - Women of Color Press, 1984. Lorde, A. There is No Hierarchy of Oppressions, Illvox . May 12, 2008. Lugones, M. Playfulness, World-Travelling, and Loving Perception in Making Face, Making SoulHaciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color . (ed.) Anzaldua, G. Aunt Lute Books, 1995. McIntosh, P. White Privilege and Male Privlege, in The Feminist Philosophy Reader . (eds.) Bailey, A. and Cuomo, C. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. Moallem, M. Feminist Scholarship and the Internationalization of Womens Studies, Feminist Studies 32, no. 2 (Summer 2006) 334 Mohanty, C. Introduction: Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Feminism and the Politics of Feminism in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism . (eds.) Mohanty, C. Russo, A. Torres, L. Indiana University Press, 1991. Mohanty, C. Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism . (eds.) Mohanty, C. Russo, A. Torres, L. (eds.) Indiana University Press, 1991. Moraga, C. From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism in Making Face, Making SoulHaciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color . (ed.) Anzaldua, G. Aunt Lute Books, 1995. Narayan, U. Contesting Cultures: Westernization, Respect for Cultures and Third-World Feminists, in The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory . (ed.) Nicholson, L. New York:Routledge,1997. Ngan Ling Chow, E. The Development of Feminist Consciousness Among Asian American Women, in The Social Construction of Gender . (eds.) Lorber, J. and Farrel, S. Sage Publications, 1991. Scott, J. The Evidence of Experience, Critical Inquiry 17, 4 (Summer 1991) Shehabuddin, E. Gender and the Figure of the Moderate Muslim: Feminism in the Twenty-first Century, in Judith Butler and Elizabeth Weed, eds. The Question of Gender: Joan W. Scotts Critical Feminism (Indiana University Press, 2018). Spelman, E. Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought . Beacon Press: Boston, 1988. Srivastava, S. Youre calling me a racist The Moral and Emotional Regulation of Antiracism and Feminism, Signs the Journal of Women in Culture and Society . 2005, vol 31, no. 1 (30, 44, 42-43) Stubblefield, A. Meditations on Postsupremacist Philosophy in White on WhiteBlack on Black, G. Yancy (ed.), New York: Rowman ampLittlefield, 2005. Thomas, L. Moral Deference . 1998. Truth, S. Aint I A Woman December 1851, Internet Modern History Sourcebook . (ed.) Paul Halsal (March 2009). Author Information Sharin N. Elkholy Email: elkholysuhd. edu University of Houston Downtown U. S. A. An encyclopedia of philosophy articles written by professional philosophers. Stay Connected Browse by Topic Recent ArticlesSharing Stories Inspiring Change Kurdish Women INTRODUCTION The history of the community began well before the destruction of the First Temple and continued for many generations. Ancient tradition has it that Jews were settled in Kurdistan 2,800 years ago, part of the Ten Tribes dispersed by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. Kurdish Jews identify themselves as amongst those described in the Prophets: the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, at the River Habor, at the River Gozan (2 Kings 17:6), places which are in fact within the Kurdistan region. The first to highlight the Kurdish Jews tradition of antiquity was the medieval Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela (second half of twelfth century), who visited Kurdistan in the year 1170. He describes finding over one hundred Jewish communities, including the 25,000 strong community of Amadiya, for whom Aramaic was still a spoken language. Kurdish Jews called their languageactually Aramaic mixed with some Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic and Hebrew words Lishna Yahudiyya (the Jewish language) or Lashon ha-Targum (language of the Targum) and referred to themselves as Anshei Targum (People of the language of the Targum). Indeed, their use of an ancient form of Aramaic (formally called Suriyani, i. e. Assyrian), closely related to the Aramaic of the Talmud. gives further credence to the tradition of their communitys ancient origins. Scholars agree that by the beginning of the second century c. e. Judaism was firmly established in central Kurdistan. During the fourth and fifth centuries Kurdistan was a fertile ground for conversion to Christianity, yet most Jews maintained their commitment to the Jewish faith. Records have been found from the Genizah of Kurdistan that date back to the sixth century. In the twelfth century, when Benjamin of Tudela visited, both Kurdistan as a whole and its Jewish community in particular were at a high point in their history. Benjamin describes financially and religiously vibrant communities, with many synagogues and rabbis. But the communitys stability and prosperity soon deteriorated. When the Spanish-Jewish poet Judah al - H arizi visited in 1230, he spoke of splendid synagoguesfull of ignorant worshippers. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, no records at all exist of the Jews of Kurdistan. During this two-hundred year period, the Jews, like their non-Jewish neighbors, may have been occupied primarily with escaping the destruction of the Mongolian conquerors. In 1534, Kurdistan became part of the Ottoman Empire, remaining under Turkish rule until the end of World War I. From the sixteenth century onwards, the main written legacy of the Kurdish Jewish communityprimarily the writings of its rabbishas been preserved. These documents reflect a society, many of whose members lived in simplicity and poverty, yet which also supported yeshivot and Jewish scholarship. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw both Jewish and non-Jewish populations reduced, or in some cases even decimated, as a result of armed conflicts between the Turkish government and local tribal leaders. But the Jews remained a relatively large group in Kurdistanmany villages were populated entirely by Jewsuntil their immigration to Israel in the mid-twentieth century. Throughout the centuries, the Jews of Kurdistan rarely lived in peace and tranquility with the Muslims their lives were subject to major political and economic instability, since they were frequently forced to move suddenly or to pay huge taxes for protection. On the other hand, their geographical isolation throughout three thousand years allowed them to be spared the stormy periods that affected other nations, as well as the Jews. This isolation also helped to preserve the distinctive religious, social and cultural characteristics of the Jewish communities in Kurdistan, though it concomitantly cut them off from the centers of Jewish society for most of their history. Thus, while it was the only place in the Jewish world where Aramaic remained a living language, Kurdistan hosted a population with little knowledge of Judaism, though they religiously practiced the few Jewish customs and mitzvot passed on from previous generations. Though in certain periods of relative prosperity Jewish learning flourished, illiteracy was common only the leaders of the community and a few others were literate. The countrys harsh geographic and climatic conditions also contributed to the establishment of the unique economic structure of Kurdish Jewrys small rural communities, which were the only ones in the Jewish world that maintained traditional farming as a major source of livelihood. Although Kurdish Jews spoke Aramaic within their own community, in commerce within the larger society they spoke Kurdish. Many aspects of Kurdish and Jewish life and culture became so intertwined that some of the most popular folk stories accounting for Kurdish ethnic origins connect them with the Jews. After World War I modernization and industrialization began to influence the communitya process accelerated after their immigration to Israel en masse in 19501951, when many of the traditional customs ceased to exist or were given different interpretations. However, the Kurdish Jews live in their own neighborhoods in Israel and still celebrate Kurdish life and culture, festivals, costumes and music in symbolic ethnic forms. The Kurds are a patriarchal society, yet the Kurdish Jewish woman enjoys much more freedom than her Jewish sisters in other traditional Jewish communities and she is far more independent than her counterparts among Kurdish, Turkish, Iranian or Iraqi Moslem women. The relationship between husband and wife is much more relaxed than that in other communities. Jewish women worked in the field with their husbands and rarely had to cover their face with a veil. Though the superior-inferior relationship existed, as in any patriarchal society, Jewish Kurdish men treated women with great respect, due to the womens contribution to the wealth and hard work of the extended family. Kurdish Jews did not differ in their clothing from the rest of the population. The men wore turbans, circling them with colorful scarves. They wore a wide top with large wide sleeves, wide trousers and a wide belt around their waist. The women wore long striped gowns, with wide scarf cloths around their heads. They decorated their arms, hands and legs with gold and silver jewelry. Thus in their appearance and behavior the Jews blended completely and utterly with the local indigenous population. During celebrations and parties there was no separation between men and women holding hands, they danced folkloric dances together. Furthermore, though women worked very hard from morning to night, they found time to enjoy bathing together in the river, singing and jokinga kind of ritual that takes many hours. In the seventeenth century the relative freedom of Kurdish women in their community led to the ordination of the first woman rabbi, Rabbi Asenath Barazani. the daughter of the well-known Rabbi Samuel Barazani (1630), who founded many Judaic schools and seminaries in Kurdistan. She was referred to as tannait. the feminine form of the customary term for a Talmudic scholar. Asenath became the head of the prestigious Judaic academy at Mosul. LIFE CYCLE During pregnancyand especially during the firsta woman receives love, attention and respect. Because the pregnant woman attempted to conceal her pregnancy for reasons of modesty, she stayed indoors during most of the nine months. Numerous beliefs, customs and rituals accompanied the pregnancy. It was quite common for the woman and her relative to seek a fortune-teller in order to find out the sex of the baby. The belief was that anything a woman sees or feels during conception or pregnancy would influence the character of the child, its looks, behavior and well-being. If the pregnant woman fancied a certain food and did not get it, the babys body would have a mark in the shape of that particular type of food. Therefore all her fancies and wishes had to be fulfilled. While women as a rule rarely drank alcohol, they believed that if a pregnant woman drank wine her baby would be born handsome and fair. An anxious pregnant woman was made to drink water that had been kept exposed on the roof overnight and received starlight. Prior to her drinking, hot skewers were put in the water, to provide her with strength to overcome her fear. A pregnant woman was not allowed to go outside during a lunar eclipse because it might affect the part of the childs body that was exposed to the eclipse and cause deformities. In the case of a woman who suffered from several miscarriages or lost many of her children, the belief was that there was an evil eye or witchcraft influencing her and therefore snake skin or threads of red, green, black and white were wound around her waist while the names of certain demons were recited. There was a strong belief that performing this ceremony would ensure that the birth would proceed without any problems. The birth was performed by a traditional midwife (with no medical training), with the help of elderly women of the family. Midwives were fully trusted and well respected by the community. If a husband dies childless, Jewish law demands that his widow marry his brother in levirate marriage to carry on the deceaseds name. If the eldest brother-in-law did not want her, his younger brother had to marry her and if he was too young she had to wait for him. However, this custom was not strictly observed. Usually the h ali z ah ceremony was performed, releasing the widow from the levirate tie and freeing her to marry someone else. The birth of males was important for the perpetuation of the family. The birth of females evidently created tension, particularly in the husbands family, and there was a tendency for the husband to blame his wife. The birth of boys reflected the fathers social status and masculinity and increased his self-esteem and self-importance. Women also preferred boys because they brought fame and elevated their status in the eyes of the family, particularly in the eyes of their husbands. The announcement of the birth of girls to the father was delayed and hushed, but news of a boys birth was immediately passed on to the father, even if he already had many sons. The news spread very fast and in no time all the neighborhoods knew of the happy occasion. The different responses are variously accounted for by referring to various facts: that there are no religious or other ceremonies accompanying the birth of a girl, that sons bring their wives into the family while girls leave the family, and that it is easier to find a wife for a male even if he is very old, while it is very hard to find a husband for a young woman if she is about to reach the age of twenty. As she gets older her chances of finding a husband become slimmer, so she becomes a burden on her family and in particular on the older brothers, who have to care for her. There is a saying that expresses the position of the girl: A girl is like a beautiful apple. Despite its beauty, the longer you leave it the less tasty it becomes, it loses its vitality, and in the end it becomes rotten. Formally, the father was the master of his family. Although the birth of girls was not as welcome as the birth of boys, the bride-price custom, whereby the father of the bride actually received money for his daughter (as if the husband were buying her), meant that the birth of girls was not considered a burden on the family, even though it was less desired. Girls were married at the age of thirteen or fourteen and boys at the age of seventeen. Age, beauty and health were important attributes that increased a females chances of attracting a husband from a good family. It was highly unusual for a man to marry into a class lower than his own, and occurred only if the bride was remarkable for her beauty. A man liked to show his wealth through his wife, and this was evidenced both by the amount of gold with which a man covered his wife and by her healthy looks. A woman had to look after her jewelry and wear her gold and silver on every occasion. It was by the amount of gold he bestowed on her that a man demonstrated his love, affection and appreciation. Usually parents began to look for a prospective bride within their extended families. Cousin marriages were preferred among all Kurds, including the Jews. If this was not possible, men sought their brides from the extended family and most marriages were endogamous. Once the right bride was found, the couple would be introduced to each other in the company of the families. Formally the matchmaking had to receive the consent of the father, but from interviews it appears that the father would not give his consent without his wife agreeing to the choice. Many parents promised their daughters at a very early age, even at the age of six or seven. Amongst the Iraqi and Turkish Kurds the bride-price custom was common. Marriages were contracted after the bride-price was agreed upon and this was formalized with a handshake. Once the terms of the agreement of the marriage contract were decided, the kiddushin ceremony was conducted and the father of the bride received the bride-price (money or goods) from the groom or his father. A divorced Kurdish Jewess could marry but her bride-price would be low or waived, depending on the circumstances. In the final analysis most women could marry and have a family, something that could not be said of the Iraqi Jewess. In many cases the father of the bride-to-be gave the bride-price to his daughter to use in order to buy material for her clothes and household goods, though formally these had to be provided by the husband. In the event of conflict or if the woman wished to divorce her husband without any good reason, her family had to repay the bride-price. On the other hand, if a man wished to divorce his wife without any apparent reason, he could not demand the bride-price but would have to provide for her welfare until she remarried. He also had to pay her the sum of money stipulated in the ketubbah (marriage contract). As a result, many men who were not happy with their wives but still wanted to retain all the property and money they had accumulated usually took second wives rather than divorcing their first wives. Such an act caused enormous tension and friction in the household, with conflicts and fights between the children of both women over the inheritance. Furthermore, the community did not encourage divorce. Usually, when a man wished to divorce his wife, the two parties would get together and attempt to settle the conflict before approaching the rabbi. If this was not successful they would go to an influential member of the community whose opinion they all valued and he would act as an arbitrator, usually managing to solve the conflict and prevent the divorce. Only if the differences between the couple could not be bridged did they approach a rabbi. Very few divorces are recorded and several of them were the result of adultery. The compromise was for the man to take a second wife and for the woman to stay married and have a roof over her head. It was not uncommon for a mans parents to buy him a wife. If both parties agreed to the terms, they performed the kiddushin (betrothal) ceremony. This was followed a few months later by the wedding ceremony, enabling the bride to prepare her clothing and linens in the interim. It was customary for the girl to embroider all her bed linen and clothing. This began to change with the exposure to modernity, even in the period prior to the immigration to Israel. Thus, the kiddushin and marriage ceremonies were performed together, as is now customary in Israel. The wedding celebration began early on Monday morning and continued for seven days, during which the entire community was invited to bridegrooms house. During the first two days the relatives came to see the bridegrooms parents. Early on Thursday morning the bridegrooms friends arrived to be with him, and on the evening of that day the crowd marched from the house of the bridegroom to the house of the brides parents to bring the bride from her parents house to that of the groom. The decorated bride rode on a colorfully decorated horse accompanied by musicians, singers and the singing crowd, all the way to her future parents-in-law. Before she entered the house, the bridegrooms family slaughtered a sheep as atonement for the bridegroom and bride. From then on the celebration began and generous hospitality was provided. After the wedding ceremony both parties were anxious as to whether the couple would be able to perform the act of intercourse. While the newlyweds entered the bridal chamber everyone waited outside, eating and drinking, until it was announced that the couple had consummated the marriage. The couple was not allowed to leave the room before successfully performing the act of penetration, for fear of witchcraft, which is believed able to prevent the newlyweds from having intercourse. Prior to the wedding ceremony adults explain to the coupleand particularly to the manhow to successfully perform the act of penetration. If the couple stayed more than half an hour in the room, those outside would knock on the door to find out what the difficulties were. When intercourse had been successfully performed, the bridegroom opened the door and let everyone particularly his mothersee the bloodied sheet. This was followed by ululating, singing and joyful cries of happiness, while the band commenced playing. The custom was to keep the bloodied sheet as evidence of the brides virginity in the event of conflicts between the two families. The marriage concluded with seven days of celebration, during which the couple was not allowed to leave the house for fear of witchcraft. Gifts were presented at a special ceremony on the first Saturday night after the wedding night. The master of ceremonies announced to the couple the details of the donors and their presents. On the first Saturday after the wedding the bride hosted all her women friends for lunch and presented them with gifts. On the second weekend, she invited both families to her house. After marriage the young couple moved in with the husbands parents, as was appropriate in a rural farming society whose members are poor. Living in the same household saved expenses and all members of the extended family gathered food, particularly in the harvest period, when all hands were needed. Division of Labor The woman was responsible for all domestic duties, but most of all she had to acknowledge her husbands superiority, accept his position as the head of the family and obey him. He was in charge of all the activities outside the domestic sphere, religious ceremonies and communal activities. In the home he sat at the head of the table and was the first to receive his food, which would be the biggest portion. Although there was thus a strict division of labor in the home, all the family members, including the wife, worked together in the field. The behavioral characteristics of the Jewess in Kurdistan were the result of a combination of the traditional local customs of the indigenous population and Jewish religious laws. In this society womens needs and feelings were given some consideration, due in part to the womans contribution to the family workforce. Nevertheless her main duties were childbearing, serving her husbands needs and educating her daughters to manage household duties when they married. The British mandate did not bring socio-economic prosperity, modernity and secularization as it did to the Iraqi urban Jews, since the Jewish Kurds were isolated geographically, socially and culturally from their Iraqi co-religionists. As in the Iraqi community, the majority continued to object to educating girls. In general the h akhamim (rabbis) did not invest in educating the young because they were busy performing other demanding tasks such as ritual animal slaughter and performing circumcisions of Muslims. In any case, very few were themselves literate. Boys learned in h eder and girls learned only the Shema Yisrael prayer. From their mothers, sisters and grandmother girls learned how to perform all household duties and conduct themselves as wives and mothers. As early as 1906 the Alliance Isralite Universelle opened schools for boys and girls, as well as many other facilities for educating and fostering progress among the Jewish Kurds. Non-Jewish Kurds also benefited vastly, since children were accepted into these schools regardless of their religious affiliation. Operations of the Alliance continued until soon after the establishment of Israel. However, very few girls studied in these schools for more than three or four years. The majority of women did not study. OCCUPATION As already mentioned, the Kurdish Jews were distinct from the rest of the Jewish worldfarming the fertile land and keeping sheep, working in the fields and vineyards from sunrise to sunset. Every evening, women of the extended family and their neighbors would gather to help each other clean the rice, sift the wheat and bake the bread, all the while singing, chatting and laughing. During harvest time all the members of the family worked together, including the women. Prior to the immigration to Israel the majority of the Jews continued to engage in farming as a major source of income, but supplemented it with occupations such as dressmaking, weaving, painting, shoemaking, trading small goods and bartering. Some seventy families from Zakho excelled in shipping woods and cargo from Kurdistan down the rivers to the arid areas. Walter Fischel (1949) found that in 1936 many Jewish farmers who were poverty-stricken, particularly in years of drought, were forced to sell their daughters because of the famine. There were incidents in which creditors took farmers daughters for their sons in lieu of money owed to them. In the eyes of the Arabs, Jewish girls were considered an attractive commodity in exchange for goods. JEWS AND NON-JEWS Conversion to Islam was not uncommon. In many cases Jews who converted refused to divorce their wives. Due to the fear of their becoming agunot. Rabbi Yoseph Haim made a takkanah to protect women which stated that every man had to write in the ketubbah that should he change his religion the kiddushin would be null and void. Thus the womens right to remarry were not abused by men who decided to convert. As the condition of Jews improved the number of conversions declined dramatically. Shimon Marcus (1964) tells of a not uncommon incident where a marriage was contracted between families, the bride-price was paid and the engagement took place, but the girl changed her mind and refused to marry the man. For his part, he refused to divorce her. Thereupon the woman threatened to convert to Islam and marry a non-Jew. This threat led to such community pressure that the groom finally granted the woman the bill of divorce. Generally speaking the Jews had good relations with the Muslims and Christians except for one problem. Arabs loved Jewish women, found them very beautiful and attractive and desired to marry them. As a result there were many incidents in which Muslims abducted girls and married them. Horrified families guarded their daughters closely, particularly if the girls were young and very good looking. Once a girl was abducted her family could do little to bring her back and the chances of her being found were very slim. KURDISH WOMEN IN ISRAEL The first group of Kurdish Jews settled in Jerusalem in 1812. Later many also settled in Jaffa, Tiberias, Safed and Bet Shean, working mainly at farming in the agricultural settlements. The majority of Kurdish Jews who arrived in Israel before World War I came from four parts of Kurdistan: the area of the Turkish city of Diyarbakhir, the mountainous area of Tigris and Euphrates in the north of Iraq, the Kermanshah District of Iran, and the Orumiyeh lake and the city of Tibriz in the Persian district in Azerbaijan. The immigrants who arrived from Iraq via Syria (particularly those from Zakho) integrated very successfully into the agricultural scene and by the thirties a chain migration was established when the population of many Kurdish villages immigrated to Israel. In 1910 the Jewish Colonial Association attempted to settle Kurdish families in the agricultural settlement of Sejera, near Tiberias. They established agricultural settlements like those in Kurdistan, populated only by Jews from Kurdistan, such as the villages of David Alroy, Kefar Azariah, and Kefar Uriah and many others. In 1935 the population of Kurdish Jews from the Iraqi area totaled eight thousand souls, the majority of whom lived in Jerusalem. After the declaration of the state of Israel, the majority of Jews from the Iraqi part of Kurdistan immigrated to Israel with the mass migration of over 125,000 Jews from Iraq. In 1950 they suffered from the Muslims and had to seek shelter in Teheran until the time was ripe for the Jewish Agency to transfer them to Israel. This was followed by a mass migration of the Jews from the Iranian part of Kurdistan entire villages were vacated as their population walked hundreds of kilometers to the aliyah center in Teheran, whence they were transferred to Israel. Once in Israel, many formed farming settlements similar to those in Kurdistan. There is a large group in Jerusalem and in other, smaller cities. The women worked in crafts, cleaning, cooking and other services. Because entire communities moved together with no major change in their socio-cultural structure, the community as a whole and women in particular did not go through major changes or extreme culture shock. Further, unlike the Iraqi women, who were not accustomed to working outside the home, Kurdish women acted as the right hand of their husbands, quickly adapting to life in Israel. At first the transition from a traditional to a western society did not bring major changes in the functions of the Kurdish family. The division of labor went through gradual changes, as did the position of women. Coming from poverty-stricken areas of Kurdistan, they were prepared to work at every type of occupation. This was particularly true of the women, who were accustomed to working outside the home and for whom it was quite natural to continue working the land. Women worked at many jobs in order to provide for their families. They never complained, but after working from dawn to late afternoon returned home to care for home and family. In time, modernity began to influence the younger generation and women began to take an active part in decision-making. There was a gradual decline in the birthrate and a rise in womens age of marriage, which resulted in smaller families, a narrowing of the average age difference between husbands and wives and a dramatic decrease in the number of kin marriages. The girls who arrived in Israel at the age of twelve or more did not go to school because they had to work to help support their family. However, with the introduction of compulsory education for males and females alike up to the age of fourteen, the families had to obey the law. Improved education brought more women into the workforce, resulting in professionalism and an increase in their rights in society. Furthermore, a 1977 law made education compulsory to the age of eighteen. Marriage age is now higher. Israeli family laws protect womens welfare in the home. Compulsory military service has made women more independent. All these factors contributed fundamentally to a change in the position of Kurdish women, who now have fewer children. Since many of them live in a Kurdish homogeneous ethnic population, inter-ethnic marriages rarely occur. In general young people not only choose their own partners but there is a period of courting so that they can get to know each other. Selecting ones own partner is a function of Western society, concerned with individual rights. The bride-price custom ceased to exist after a number of years in Israel. The extended family remains important for Kurdish women, but not to the same degree as in Kurdistan. As to their beliefs, Susan Sered (1993) in her study of Yemenite and Kurdish women in Israel showed that, though mainly illiterate and excluded from formal religious practices, the women were expert in rituals designed to safeguard the well-being of their extended families. By analyzing their rituals, experiences and non-verbal gestures, Sered discovered strategies these women have developed to overcome the patriarchal institutions and create their own little tradition. There is still an explicit division between the sexes with regard to work and the professional occupational role is still viewed mainly as a masculine prerogative. Most Kurdish women do not see any contradiction between their role as housewives and their work outside the home. As for decision-making, men already in the country of origin took their wives opinions seriously and in Israel this is even more the case. Only in the last generation have the women begun to be exposed to modernization processes. This is due to the fact that the majority lived in fairly homogenous ethnic groups and were not exposed to other ways of life. On arrival to Israel in the early 1950s the host society and the policy makers wanted to demonstrate their superiority and they decided for the Kurds in which places to live, establishing villages for them in deserted far-away places isolated from modern centers of activity (a Kurdish interviewee). Thus Kurdish Jews were once again isolated from the surrounding society and kept in ignorance of it. As a result, it took this ethnic group much longer than others to take advantage of the opportunities offered by modern city life. CONCLUSION The transition to modern society has given more power to women. The decline in the birth ratethe average family today has approximately three childrenhas also played a major role in improving the welfare of women. The Kurdish woman continues to move toward increased freedom of the individual from parental control, particularly in the last two decades. As Sami Smooha (1978) noted, there is a growing democratization in respect to sex and age differentiation which took place among Orientals during the last two decades. In the words of a Kurdish university student interviewee, Today the woman is independent and is able to fulfill her desire and realize her potential. She is more aware of modernization and takes advantage of modern life as much as she can. Furthermore, even though Jewish women in Kurdistan were respected and their contribution was valued, and they were quite strong, here in Israel she exercises her rights and there is more equality between men and women. In the past a man did not dare ask his wife for help openly, everything was done quietly. Now he needs help too and he can ask his wife to support him emotionally. In recent years there has been a revival of symbolic ethnicity among this ethnic group and women play an important part in this process. For example, in Kiryat Malakhi, a development town where there is a large population of Kurds, they have established a performing dance group that has frequently represented Israel at folkloric festivals abroad. Furthermore, in Jerusalem, where there is an attempt to revive Kurdish folk music, there is a choir that sings Kurdish folk songs in the Kurdish language. Ben-Zvi, Yi zh ak. The Exiled and the Redeemed. Translated from the Hebrew by I. A. Abbady. Philadelphia: 1957. Brauer, Erich. The Jews of Kurdistan: An Ethnological Study. Edited by Raphael Patai. Detroit: 1993. Cohen, Haim J. The Jews of the Middle East, 18601972. New York and Toronto: 1973. Filsinger, Eric E. Love, Liking, and Individual Marital Adjustment: A Pilot Study of Relationship Changes within One Year. International Journal of Sociology of the Family 13, no. 1 (1983): 145157. 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