Ethiopian Kitchen
The Ethiopian kitchen exclusively belongs to Ethiopian women; the men are not allowed to enter this area because it is considered to be disrespectful for the men. Alongside with cooking, the Ethiopian women are also responsible for other domestic work and raising the children. The Ethiopian men do not participate in house work, and they are considered to be the dominant force of the house, making all the decisions and controlling all the economic life. The Ethiopian community in Israel who immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel in the last four decades are still significantly influenced from the Ethiopian patriarchy culture. The generation of my parents, who spent most of their lives in Ethiopia, are used to the patriarchal structure that gives all the power to men.
The Ethiopian community in Israel is biased and cooperative in many ways. People depend and rely on each other for better or for worse. For me, one of the best thing in this community is the participation of people in special events and the practical and financial help they give to the celebrating family. You can see community gathering on weekly bases in weddings, funerals, new house inauguration, ritual circumcisions, Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremony and more.
The amazing thing in this special events is the fact that it will be your only opportunity to see the Ethiopian men cooking. I will use a story to demonstrate: when my father passed away five years ago, the rumor spread very fast and, almost immediately, women from all around the neighborhood came to my house to prepare food. The typical Ethiopian food consist of Injera, which is made from teff flour, and is used almost in every meal. The Injera comes with diverse vegetarian dishes or meat options. The Injera is placed as the basis and used for grabbing the different sauces by hand. At the same time, the men take their special sharpened knives and butcher and cook the live cow and lamb that they had bought for the occasion. While the women were cooking in my house, the men were cooking outside the house in some improvised "camp" they built behind our building, the same camp that will be used to host all the people who wer coming to the funeral.
When I asked my mother why it was the way it was in the kitchen, she told me that first, the women were not allowed to butcher meat according to the Jewish religion. Second, she said, women are not strong enough to deal with cow and lamb, and, lastly, she added that the women were supposed to be men's assistants in those special events.
When I'm analyzing this story as gender analysis, I can see a few things. First, men are the center of the events and receive the recognition for hosting and cooking the main dishes, while women who does the cooking daily, receive much less recognition, and, sometimes, their efforts are taken for granted.
Second, men are always doing the more aggressive and physical work using their power, and women are doing the more delicate and domestic work. We can see this pattern from the hunters-gatherers period, men in charge for hunting/ bringing the meat that represents the more valuable and desired food home, while women were responsible for the more daily and simple food.
Third, women are cooking inside the house, usually in small kitchens with daily equipments, and men are cooking outside in a bigger space with special equipments that are saved for special events.
The immigration to Israel changed and continue to change the Ethiopian-Israeli community. In my generation, the different rules of women and men in the kitchen, and, in general, are becoming unclear and challenges the community. Like my mother said, nowadays, men even enter the kitchen to make Injera.
