Product Description
A rich analysis of how four Tunisian-Israeli women tell the stories of their lives, and a look at the implications for our own understanding of stories and the behavior of communication. ... Read more

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Traditional -> Modern, not just for Jewish Women
A massive achievement of Israel was its success in absorbing, and largely integrating, inflows of Jews from vastly different cultural backgrounds. This book discusses one such migration, of Jews from agricultural communities in Tunisia. Schely-Newman focuses on the women who made this transition. While Jewish societies in Muslim countries did not have the same degree of purdah for their women as did their Muslim neighbours, over the centuries, such attitudes had their impact.

So these Jewish women tended to have secluded lifestyles. The change in moving to a predominantly secular and industrial society must have been severe for some, even if they moved to rural Israel. The author explores in case studies how several women coped and modified their traditions in their new homeland.

The descriptions here are broader than just for Jews. Indeed, in countries like Saudi Arabia, which industrialised in one generation, and Turkey and Indonesia, which are still doing so, there was large internal migration. One can see interesting parallels in the Muslim experiences with modernisation. ... Read more