“We know of dozens of cases like this in northern communities,” said social worker Emile Semaan, who heads an administrative forum for welfare workers in Arab towns. Only after the wedding do these women discover that their husbands “don’t function like other people.”
Yet not all these women are unhappy with the results of the conspiracy against them. Some discover that a developmentally disabled husband gives them power, control and freedom that other Arab women can only dream about. [...]
The researchers interviewed 12 women married to developmentally disabled men. They found that 75 percent weren’t aware of their husband’s condition before they married; half said they were pressured into the marriage. [...]
The study was conducted by Prof. Roni Strier of the University of Haifa’s School of Social Work and Ilham Zidan, a social worker in charge of developmentally disabled people at the welfare department of the Arab town of Jadeidi-Makr. It found that most of the women agreed to enter the union because marriage is so important in Arab society and single women have very low status.
All the women said they aspired to be wives and mothers, regarded marriage as an achievement and considered it vital to improving their economic and social status. They also saw it as the only way to have sex and children. Essentially, the women suffered from triple discrimination: as Arabs, as women and as spinsters.
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