title: 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.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Adult Education, David Yellin Academic College , Jerusalem , Israel.
authors.forename: Ariela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Popper-Giveon
authors.affiliation: b Sociology and Anthropology Department, Western Galilee Academic College , Akko , Israel.
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Keshet
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D018912:Arabs; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000523:psychology*; D003469:Culture; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007557:Israel; D008519:Medicine, Traditional / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups; D011209:Power, Psychological; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors