european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
The legitimacy of open dialogue and commentary which they encountered and implemented
during higher education did not halt at the level of texts and academic discourse. The women,
influenced by the fact that they were free to question theories and authoritative concepts, were also able
to challenge the legitimacy of male strength of authority as the sole source of knowledge, as it often is
in Druze society (Author, 2006b). The years spent studying were described as a period of intense
individual change. Their studies altered their ways of thinking and changed their perceptions of the
individual’s place in society. The period of study was described as a time that provided the women
with opportunities to discover levels and aspects of “inner self” that could not always find expression
in the Druze society.
Returning Home: What is home?
Upon returning to their families and communities, the layers of their unique personalities which they
wished to express were not always compatible with traditional expectations in Druze society. The
women, whose identities were shaped and consolidated during their period of study, felt at times, that
by accepting the gender codes of their society, they were distancing themselves from their inner selves
and suppressing their unique personal selves.
Research findings of adaptation of students (mainly from the Far East or Latin America)
attending overseas universities, focused on their adjustment to the new culture (Hoff, 1979; Bennett,
1986; Cushnir, 1991; Furnam and Bochner, 1986; Paige, 1991; Weaver, 1986, Grove and Torbion,
1986). 4 The effects of cultural transition upon the return to the original society have hardly been
examined 5 . Researchers who studied the effects of women’s education in the Arab or Muslim world
have not discussed their return to their former lifestyles (Ahmad-Fauzia, 2001; Michaels, 1998;
Shaaban, 1998; Whalley, 1998; Abdel kader, 1987; Eickelman, 1994).
Since Druze women cannot live alone, after completing their degree, they had to return to their
villages and families, to the custody and control of a male relative. Most of them had to choose a job
from the limited alternatives offered in the village, their choice further restricted by the prohibition on
working with men.
Entering university, with its Western norms, liberal attitudes and ways of life was described as
a “shock”, but the return to their society was described as “the shock”. Interviewees associated this
shock with the changes in identity they had undergone during the period of study, while the norms they
were expected to live by had remained unchanged, and seemed, upon return, restrictive and
constricting their personal freedom:
Coming back is harder,” says Siham, one of the interviewees, “much harder, many times,
a thousand times more than leaving. The changes I went through there, (at the university),
and then going back home to deal with a society where only a small percentage of the
people have changed mentally, it’s difficult, it’s a shock. You feel you’ve changed.
Going out of the village and living other experiences, it does something to you. It’s easier
for a person to get used to freedom, it’s harder to get used to something suffocating,
something hurting you. (…) I can’t fit into the modern world, and I can’t come back to
the village and be Siham, the village girl again. (Siham)
Iman, another interviewee, expresses her feelings of displacement upon her return to the
village.
It’s just the beginning. And emotionally – I just can’t get adjusted to this reality, of
coming back. I can’t. (…).Going out was like a dream, an aspiration to reach something. I
was motivated. It was hard, but it’s a difficulty you work to overcome.)…(Coming back
was hard because during those five years, I changed personally. I began seeing myself as
responsible, independent, as having character, having something to give. The period of
studies helped to build an independent personality, and finally I knew that I was a person
4 These studies found adaptation difficulties, social isolation, lowered self-image, disappointment at unfulfilled expectations, depression and frustration.
5 Kidder, 1991 and Paige, 1991 conducted a study describing the difficulties in adjustment of students returning from the United States to the Far East.
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