Who Needs Monogamy? And other fun questions posed by women

"Women of flesh and blood also deserve to be loved with less possessiveness and more equality. However, Jerusalem is not a woman. It is a city with a long, long history, in which many peoples have lived and many cultures have teemed. So developed the special character of the city. Whoever is in charge of it should see her/himself as small enough in the perspective of the continuum of the city's history, instead of projecting his (or rarely, her) megalomanic dreams striving for eternity."
-- Hasan-Rokem 54

" " 'Antar is a bitch," said Dr. Hisham with great disappointment.
"You mean she is a female," I tried to correct him.
"That's what I meant," said Dr. Hisham.
"So...?" I said in an irritated, high-pitched voice.
"Do you really want to waste a thirty-dollar vaccine on a baladi bitch?" "
--Amiry 111

"Soon I had a huge collection of books on dogs: All You Want to Know About Your Dog, Admit Sleeping with Your Dog, Loving Your Dog More than Your Husband, Can My Dog Become My Heir?, Cheating on Your Dog, What Breed Is Your Dog? My latest books was Growing Up with a Lesbian Master.
I also subscribed to Bitch magazine."
--Amiry 112

Ok, I just thought that last excerpt from Amiry's Sharon and My Mother-in-Law was really funny. The other two excerpts above, though, get at something deeper in the themes of our discussions. In their very different styles, Hasan-Rokem and Amiry both point out a general misogyny that underlies both Israeli and Palestinian cultures, offering an alternative to the religious and ethnic explanations for dispute-- gender. Now this isn't the first time I've heard sexist applied generally to men from this region (I've actually heard it a lot), but it is the first time I've heard the term extended to encompass a desire to control the land. Hasan-Rokem urges Jerusalemites to be "less blinded by frustrated emotional needs, which can perhaps be better filled in the company of real men and women..." (55). In a sense she asks the city and its inhabitants to accept polygamy and share responsibility. What religions are we dealing with, anyway?