The role of silencing among religious Girlsin Jewish, Christian-Arab, Muslim, and bedouin schools in Israel

The aim of this chapter is to analyze the use of silencing strategies in the socialization processes of religious girls in Jewish, Muslim, Christian-Arab, and Bedouin schools in Israel who are brought up in a transitional society between traditionalism and modernity. While many theories explore the origins of the language, few cope with the origins of silence. People assumed that before there were words, there was a void silence and that the development of language did not affect that silence. Silence was perceived as a passive background to the noisy activity of communication rather than an active entity that transmits meaning (Clair 1998).