“He Is Alienated”: Intermarriage among Druze Men in Israel

Abstract

This article examines the effect of young Druze men's intermarriage (interracial marriage in Israel) on their nuclear family and their extended family in the aspects of culture, society and religion, as well as the internal dynamics between the mixed couples, in an attempt to shed light on the social complexity of the Druze men who had chosen intermarrying and therefore are alienated from their restricted society, a society which is a national ethnic minority that is guided by restricted codes of religions in order to preserve its community from assimilation. This social complexity has not been sufficiently examined in terms of research. In order to answer the issues that were raised in this article, I have conducted depth interviews with 17 Druze men, who had chosen intermarriage rather than conventional ones within the congregation. The objects had to answer controversial issues evoking in their marriage, the relationship with the nuclear family of both spouses, power and gender roles, the raising of children, etc. The findings indicate alienating of the Druze men who were married women of a different religion, that is to say, a complete alienation of the men and their children. This is one of the reasons why the children in these mixed families tend to embrace the lifestyle and religion of the mother, it also explains the great dependency on the wife and her family. For most of the interviewees, the relation to the Druze culture and roots are poor, and the Druze identity is almost nonexistent. The gender roles has also changed in those mixed families, the Druze men feel inferior in relation to their wives, particularly in cases their wife is Jewish, thus, the Druze men are forced to live in their wife's surroundings, to adjust the different cultural, social and religious norms, and to maintain different codes of household regarding the tasks and raising of the children, which differ by far from the Druze society norms.

The development of the status of Druze women in the 21st century

“…The Druze community is conservative and characterized by a traditional way of life and a patriarchal structure (Amrani, 2010 ; Halabi and Shamai, 2016 ; Farraj Falah, 2017 ), while constantly caring about preserving the key values of religion, tradition, independence, and the connection to the land (Falah, 2000 ; Hassan, 2011 ). The Druze family is characterized by a clear hierarchy, and the father has absolute rule over his extended family, i.e., his wife, sons, unmarried daughters, brides, and their offspring.…”

Intermarriage among Druze Men

“…The divorced couple is not allowed to live together under the same roof, and is not allowed to talk to each other, nor remarry each other (Falah, 2000). The Druze religious restrict laws and the religious and social boycott, as opposed to the Jewish law that supports marriage as long as the woman does not marry another man, and the Muslim law, in which the divorced couple can return living together only after the wife marries and then separates from the other man, the phenomenon (of divorcing) is relatively minor in the Druzesociety (Falah, 2018).…”

“Pioneers”—The Druze Women School Principals as Role Models & Generators of Social Change

“…Faraj-Falah (2016a) claims that the Druze woman always have worked beside her husband, she was responsible mainly for the farming and soil in the field and then was coming home to continue maintaining the household, from cleaning to cooking. Thus, the decrease in agriculture-the main source for bread, had damaged badly the Druze sector, and as a result, the Druze woman, who is subjected to residential radius restriction (Falah, 2000;Faraj-Falah, 2005;Faraj-Falah, 2018). Vinner-Levi (2004) claims that the Druze women in Israel suffer from twice over discrimination: one time is due to the fact that the community is a minority in a State which the employment opportunities for the Arab population in general and for women, in particular, are limited, and secondly, for being part of traditional and rigid society which restricts women from working outside their villages due to cultural-traditional reasons.…”

“…The language-the non-native Hebrew, is also a barrier that prevents women from entering well-paid jobs and major professions, urging them to work in "small businesses" and in manufacturing, or at any service which does not require speaking the Hebrew language. Another barrier is the religious leaders of the community, who are against the work of women outside home and against academic studies, which sometimes compel women to sleep outside their homes and expose them to modern society (Faraj-Felah, 2005;Faraj-Falah, 2018).…”