Women's Role In The Red Tent

The very title of my book The Red Tent shows how important of a role this tent has. Women only enter the red tent during childbirth or menstruation. This is because they see these times as sacred and something that men had no place in. While in the tent women would either enjoy their short break or face the inherent danger of childbirth. Because of this Dinah would know her mother and her aunts better than if she only knew them while around men. In the tent they would teach Dinah the religion of their mother and in other women’s red tents she would learn how to be a midwife. The tent represents the bond that Dinah and all other women have because of the danger and peace they could feel in the tent. When the women gathered in the tent they would speak of their past and their mother’s past. While in the red tent Dinah would listen to her mothers as they explained their lives and the stories of their mother. “The other reason women wanted daughters was to keep their memories alive.” (Diamant 3). This was because women were often forgotten in stories and so they had to give them to their daughters. Dinah became close with her mother and her aunts, whom she also called her mothers since her father married them, because she was the only daughter to carry on their memories. The sharing of stories within the red tent created

This was the only time that women would ever have off and they held it preciously. “Time wrapped itself around the gathering of my body, the aching anticipation of release, the three quiet days of separation and pause.” (Diamant 175). When Dinah describes the time between these rests in the red tent she describes her longing for the time spent relaxing and listening to no one but her mothers. No man could enter the red tent; within the tent women made any rules no one ruled over another. This was a time for them to appreciate their otherwise grueling