Collective Narratives and Traditional Values in Meetings to Promote Peace: The Case of Religious Jewish and Muslim Women in Israel

Abstract

This study examined collective narratives and interactions among religious Muslim women and ultra-Orthodox Jewish women during meetings designed to promote dialogue. The dialogue group consisted of 10 women leaders from each of the two patriarchal communities who met regularly over 3 years (2018–2021); conversations were summarized, recorded, and transcribed by the researchers, and the data were categorized into three themes based on the model developed by Sagy et al. (2002). This model investigates collective narratives of the in-group and the out-group via legitimacy, empathy, and anger. This work revealed several important findings. First, there was meaningful dialogue that occurred between the participants. This dialogue led to better understanding of the collective narratives of others and the ability to identify certain similarities between the groups. In addition, while the women who participated in the dialogue group were familiar with the limitations of gender within traditional society, they also discovered advantages that contributed to a common, respectful dialogue. Finally, the duration of the conversations and the tolerance of the women created trust and a desire to promote neighborly relations. These findings indicate that the presence of women in peace discussions is quite effective and could potentially lead to applicable nonviolent practices.