Changes in the Social Status of Urban Jewish Women in Iraq as the Nineteenth Century Turned*

[1] During the nineteenth century Arab countries underwent an awaking process, which included their Jewish populations. This awakening manifested itself in the imitation of western models of education, culture, literature, poetry and theatre, as well as in the modernization of everyday life. Although the process was slow, the lives of Middle Eastern women, including Jewish women, were considerably influenced by this renaissance. [2] The awakening of Babylonian Jewry began with the establishment of the Alliance Israèlite Schools in Baghdad, which opened for boys in 1864 and for girls in 1893. Girls ’ school inaugurated a series of changes and far-reaching improvements in the lifestyle of educated urban Jewish women during the first part of the twentieth century. These positive changes involved Jewish women, mainly in the large cities; however they did not transform the social status of Jewish women as a self-conscious, collective, and fully formed group. Furthermore, these women failed to translate their personal achievements into a well worked-out and significant social phenomenon, nor could they alter the attitude of male society around them, or gain recognition as a separate and equal social factor. [3] The changes in the life of Babylonian Jewish women should be examined against the background of the inferior and limited social status of their non-Jewish, usually Muslim, counterparts. One must consider the elements that influenced their lives and shaped their self-image, namely the local customs and social circumstances of the Jewish and non-Jewish environment. [4] Very little has been written about the lives of Iraqi Jewish women. This was due to their confinement to the home, and to lack of exposure to the outside world. Travel books and memoirs relate very little information about the women in the Middle East, and even less about Jewish women. By compiling information that lies dispersed in books, various newspapers and primary documents, we shall attempt to outline the social and cultural evolution undergone by the Iraqi Jewish female population