“He Is Alienated”: Intermarriage among Druze Men in Israel

Abstract

This article examines the effect of young Druze men’s intermarriage (interracial marriage in Israel) on their nuclear family and their extended family in the aspects of culture, society and religion, as well as the internal dynamics between the mixed couples, in an attempt to shed light on the social complexity of the Druze men who had chosen intermarrying and therefore are alienated from their restricted society, a society which is a national ethnic minority that is guided by restricted codes of religions in order to preserve its community from assimilation. This social complexity has not been sufficiently examined in terms of research. In order to answer the issues that were raised in this article, I have conducted depth interviews with 17 Druze men, who had chosen intermarriage rather than conventional ones within the congregation. The objects had to answer controversial issues evoking in their marriage, the relationship with the nuclear family of both spouses, power and gender roles, the raising of children, etc. The findings indicate alienating of the Druze men who were married women of a different religion, that is to say, a complete alienation of the men and their children. This is one of the reasons why the children in these mixed families tend to embrace the lifestyle and religion of the mother, it also explains the great dependency on the wife and her family. For most of the interviewees, the relation to the Druze culture and roots are poor, and the Druze identity is almost nonexistent. The gender roles has also changed in those mixed families, the Druze men feel inferior in relation to their wives, particularly in cases their wife is Jewish, thus, the Druze men are forced to live in their wife’s surroundings, to adjust the different cultural, social and religious norms, and to maintain different codes of household regarding the tasks and raising of the children, which differ by far from the Druze society norms.