Complementary Medicine as a Path Toward Empowerment of Arab–Palestinian Women in Israel

Abstract

Arab–Palestinians in Israel compose a traditional minority population that previously relied on traditional folk medicine and religious healing. Today some among this minority population are adopting imported complementary medicine. We interviewed Arab–Palestinians of the first generation of complementary medicine practitioners. Their decision to study complementary medicine constitutes a path toward empowerment, providing healers with an aura of modernity, enabling integration into the predominantly Jewish Israeli medical establishment to gain professional recognition as experts, and to acquire a sense of belonging. Practicing complementary medicine provides financial independence, liberation, and self-fulfillment and an opportunity to help female patients break through constraining barriers.