English Class Can Be a Gold Mine

My English classes are often a veritable gold mine of young Palestinian folks’ opinions. I’m always anxious to know what people here think and how they feel on any number of issues. Issues that we talk about and issues that we take for granted.

One of the things I’ve been doing with my English classes, besides having them bring in new words that they learned, is to create topics of conversation using these words for all of us in class to talk about. If I find their question particularly dissatisfying, then I introduce my own, which as you can imagine, are almost always political and social in nature. We’ve talked about a ton of interesting topics so far, and I’ve gotten great opinions. Some are fascinating, some are a little more shocking, but all highlight both the striking differences and striking similarities between our two cultures.

About a week ago, one of my classes had a great discussion about the death penalty. The split was just what one would expect in the United States. Three or four people were against it and the other ten people or so were firmly in support. On the ‘against’ side, the reasons given were just as expected. Some said “How can we kill people if we say that killing is wrong”, others said “killing is wrong; we should just keep them in jail”. One girl, though, said that “The government did not give life to take it. Only Allah can take life because he gives life”. Although several people, even on the pro-death penalty side, agreed with this sentiment, the majority were still in support.

On the pro side, I heard things like “Well these people will never learn that what they did is wrong, so we should kill them”, or “They might kill someone again, even in prison, so it is better for everybody if we kill them”. However, there were also other religious arguments on this side as well. I heard “in our culture and religion, we kill people who are murderers”, or “Allah says that we must kill murderers”. However, there was significant disagreement as to the religious parameters of the death penalty.

They asked me what I thought. I said that I don’t believe in the death penalty, because I think that we cannot tell people killing is wrong if we, as a society, kill ourselves. If killing is wrong, it must be wrong all the time. We can’t make exceptions. A few people said “Well that is your culture in the U.S. I reminded them that on the contrary, the death penalty is legal in the U.S. (and in some states very legal), and we kill lots of folks. I told them that we have a clause in the U.S. constitution that says the people have a right against “cruel and unusual punishment”, and I’m one of the people in the United States that believes the death penalty is cruel and unusual.

I asked what they thought about this clause, ‘cruel and unusual’. As an example, I said that in Saudi Arabia, they cut off your hand if you are caught stealing. Here is where it gets interesting. A surprising number of people (well, all the people that were pro-death penalty) were really in favor of cutting off peoples hands for stealing. I was shocked. I asked them why. What I heard was “we need to teach people that stealing is wrong”, or “they won’t steal again if their hand is cut off”. I also heard “other people will be scared to steal if they know their hands will get cut off”. The relative pacifists in the class said that people still steal, so obviously as a method of deterrence it is not working. On the pro side, they countered with “many more people would steal if they didn’t cut people hands off”. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting that when I brought the issue up, but I’m really glad I did.

A couple days later, in another one of my classes, one of the vocab words was ‘inhibit’. One girl got up and asked “Many women have to work outside of the home in order to help their families, but they are often inhibited. What do you think of this?” The answers were fascinating. A couple of the women said that women should not work out of the home at all. But most of the women, including one of the guys in class, thought that women could work outside the home, but only in ‘suitable’ professions. I said okay, like what? Almost everyone said teaching (but only at a girl’s school) was appropriate. A lot of the women said nursing, although one guy thought that was too much for women, because they would often have to deal with disgusting situations.

Okay. I asked what would be considered a suitable profession. One of the girls said a judge. “A judge? Why can’t women be judges?” I asked. She said that women can’t really make difficult decisions, and so that job should be left to a man. All the women agreed. Wow. I asked what else. Another girl said a manager. I asked why not, and she said that women can’t really control people or an office like a man, and so they shouldn’t be managers. Again all the women, and one of the guys, agreed. I asked if they thought women could be could be politicians or presidents. All the women immediately laughed and said “no way” I asked why. They said that women can’t control their feelings, and would make bad decisions. They said that women are too sensitive, and might cry in the middle of a meeting. Or, that women will panic when trying to make a difficult decision, and that men are better at these things. They said that these jobs were not for women, because women are ‘delicate’ and ‘soft’ and ‘sensitive’ and should only take jobs they could handle. Ah, but one of the men raised his hand and said that women could be presidents or prime ministers if they surrounded themselves with able and intelligent men that could advise them. Some of the women accepted this argument, although begrudgingly.

I asked about the concept of ‘responsibility’. I said that a man’s responsibility is viewed as making money, while a woman’s responsibility is viewed as taking care of the house. Why is that, I asked. Could that ever change? All the women gave a resounding no. When I asked why, they said women are weak; they can’t deal with the world or all the crazy things in it. But men are strong, and they can deal with anything. Women should stay at home. It’s about protection. But, women can work if their husbands allow them to. I asked if this process of ‘being allowed’ to work was good, or correct. They said yes, that men were ‘the master of the house’, and were better at decision making, so they should decide if it is appropriate for his wife to work, or where to work. Ironically enough, it was me, the director of PSD Jenin (a man), and one more guy who were arguing for a more robust view of women’s rights.

I was totally and completely shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Not because of what was being said, but because of who was saying it. I’ve heard these things before, but I’ve heard them from men. I couldn’t believe that it was women themselves telling me that they couldn’t make decisions, or couldn’t control their feelings. I was totally stunned. Talk about internalized oppression. When something is the norm for so long, I guess one begins to accept it. If you are raised with people constantly telling you that since you are a women, you are weak and can’t ever do x, y and z, then I guess that is all you ever know, and that is what you believe.

I mean, on one hand, these kids look so……..modern. Can I use that word, or is it still fucked up and Orientalist? What I mean to say is that on the one hand, the guys in the room are wearing skinny jeans, sneakers or high tops, graphic tees, etc. Their hair is gelled like nothing else (for some reason the popular hair style for every single man here is extremely short and faded on the sides, longer on the top). The women might wear a hijab, but many of them are also wearing tight ass-hugging jeans and long, high-heeled boots. They cake on their make-up. On the other hand, I hear views like “we should cut off people’s hands for stealing” or “women can’t be managers of offices because they can’t control their feelings”. It’s just really crazy that is all. Very different.

I must emphasize that not all people think like this. Not all people in Jenin feel this way. This class is a more extreme example. But certainly not everyone in Palestine feels this way. You have to remember that Jenin is a pretty small town. It is a relatively traditional place, definitely much more so than places like Hebron of Bethlehem, and especially more traditional than Ramallah.

However much I may disagree, I try to keep a mild stance. However, I am always asked my opinion, and I always answer truthfully. The one time I did get a little angry was when one girl said that children whose mother’s work when they are growing up turn out to be bad people without morals. I had to say ‘Wait a minute. My mom worked growing up, I’m not a bad person, right?” Other than that, I respectfully state my opinion.

I have to say, teaching the English classes was the best activity for me during my time here. It gives me the opportunity to find out what a range of people in Palestine think on a range of issues. This is one of the biggest reasons I came here. I wanted to know what life is like, how people feel about the conflict, about life, about social issues, about anything. English class has been the perfect forum to explore.