ABSTRACT
Middle Eastern women have never had any doubts about their own identities: they were mothers; sistersdaughters, grandmothers, aunts, cousins; they were Muslims, Christians, Jews; they were Armenians, Kurds, Nubians, and Berbers. Yemeni Jewish women were brought up to behave as daughter, wife and mother—these were the three important statuses for women of the immigrant generation, as was the case for all the generations before them. In the early years after Yemeni Jewish migration to Israel, there were few dramatic changes in the context of mother–daughter relationships. Relationships with their parents and memories of family life in Yemen are evidently seen as morally superior to those obtaining in contemporary conditions. These family purity rituals are fundamentally important because they influence beliefs and practices associated with women’s attitudes to their contributions to the Jewish nation, and, indirectly, their ideas about sexuality. The three crucial statuses of femaleness—daughter, wife, and mother—must be understood in terms of the interaction of Yemeni and Israeli influences.
