Peoples of Israel #3 - Druze Women & Divorce

According to Rosenthal, “A woman can initiate divorce proceedings and has the right to her own property; if a young mother dies, her children and property revert to a woman on her side of the family. However, like Muslims, Druze are strongly patrilineal and, like Islamic judges, Druze his wife fails to bear children, especially sons. And if a widow remarries, her late husband’s family frequently gets custody of her children” (Rosenthal, 294).

Hiham Arayda, 38, has been divorced for 12 years. For her personal experience she was able to obtain a divorce easily with the help of her family. She told them that she was “returning home” as to not give anyone the inclination that she was engaging in affair as a reason for the divorce. Afterwards, she then had to deal with the obstacle of fighting for custody of her children. According to Rosenthal, “A woman can initiate divorce proceedings and has the right to her own property; if a young mother dies, her children and property revert to a woman on her side of the family. However, like Muslims, Druze are strongly patrilineal and, like Islamic judges, Druze his wife fails to bear children, especially sons. And if a widow remarries, her late husband’s family frequently gets custody of her children” (Rosenthal, 294). However, in Arayda’s case, over a series of months she was able to obtain custody of all her four children one at a time. Arayda talks how due to custom, many divorced women are required to leave the home as the couple cannot see each other. However, she states that “the villages today are large, and lack public transportation, employment and public housing. The problems for a divorced woman in the village are greater than for women in the city, but the have no possibility of leaving.”

Arayda states that “to live as a divorced woman is worse than being a widow, who is at least regarded with some pity. A married woman is sometimes expected to suffer violence in order to preserve the family, and most of all not to divorce.” As stated in Rosenthal, “the honor of Druze women is so sacrosanet that they are not required to have photos on official Israeli documents’ Druze religious judges waive the requirement because having her picture taken means shaming a woman’s honor” (Rosenthal, 300). Women who have shamed the family are “potential victims of family ‘honor killings’” (Rosenthal, 300). Rosenthal uses the story of Ibtihaj Hassan who had divorced her husband and wanted to move away in which she eventually married outside the faith to a Bedouin. Her younger brother tricked her that her family had forgiven her and once she had returned home she was publically stabbed in the stomach by her brother. However, this was seen with encouragement as onlookers called him “Hero, Hero! You’re a real man!” (Rosenthal, 300) It is generally not seen as a “bad murder” but an “honor killing” to cleanse the tainted family name. Rosenthal writes that some men still believe in an ancient Arabic proverb: “Grass grows quickly over blood that has been shed honorably” (Rosenthal, 301).

Arayda, now is a public speaker at a seminar which is in “cooperation of the Women Lawyers for Social Justice association, the Law School at Haifa University and Kayan, a Haifa organization promoting the rights of a civil society, to bring awareness about Druze women.