Struggling against religious rules and patriarchy: Druze women strive for education in Israel

ABSTRACT This paper presents the narratives of Druze women in Israel, focusing on their strategies in dealing with their parents and the clergy for obtaining secondary and higher education. These reveal their use of different forms of agency in their struggle for education, pointing to the key role played by their mothers. I argue that these patterns are related to the intersectionality of at least two subordinating and oppressive mechanisms: the Israeli state’s negligence with respect to Druze society and the social and religious structures imposed on Druze women. Their struggle to seek education is an example of women’s resistance against patriarchal oppression from within.