EDUCATION

** Keep in mind that 59% of today’s Palestinian college graduates in the West Bank are females.

One day I received a lead to interview a seventy-one-year-old mother of eight children, Um Basil. I sat in her guest room with my notebook and digital recorder in hand, patiently waiting for her to finish her noontime prayer. She turned out to be a very direct and has a worldly sense to her. She offered me hot tea with mint before we began. A mother to eight children, she understands life has handed her more opportunities than women received in her mother’s generation. She calmly explains:

Women my mom’s age did not go to school. They received zero education—more like “zero minus.” Marriage was more important, and parents may not have been able to buy notebooks and books to be able to send their kids to school. Villages only offered education to a certain level (fourth, fifth, sixth grade), and if you wanted a higher education, you had to send your kids to a city like Ramallah or al-Bireh. Men could not afford to send all their kids to the city every day. Women did not traditionally leave the house, so it was hard for them to let their daughters travel alone to a city. There was also no point in sending girls to school, because there were no jobs that supported women in the marketplace. It was also shameful for women to work outside the house.

Very few Palestinians could read or write prior to the 1940s, as most Palestinians were fallaheen (farmers), and this lifestyle did not require a textbook education. In fact it was almost unheard of for a woman to have any schooling. The exception to this rule were women born into wealthy and skilled families who valued education and could afford to pay for their children’s schooling. These women not only became educated but also participated in social development and community issues. Overall Palestinians believe that in the absence of what books can teach them in school, learning is possible through socialization.