Yemenite women's songs
Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David

The Preservation of Jewish Languages and Cultures in memory of Hayyim (Marani) Trabelsy
Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David
Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David
When I was 15 years old, I married my father’s brother. My father told me: “I’ll show you to your uncle. I hope you trust me and respect me”. I told my father: “But he is 10 years older than me, I am only 15 years old.” He said “don’t worry, I will have a wedding no one has ever seen, and I will bring you lots of presents. I will go to Sanaʽa and buy you jewelry”. My father told me that so I will agree to marry my uncle.
He loved me and I loved him.
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Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David
David: I gave birth to a girl. It was all red and my mother thought I’m going to lose my child.
Ratsaby: There were no midwives in Yemen?
David: No. The older women deliver the young. They cut the umbilical cord, bury the placenta, and wash the mother. For a month, my sisters didn’t let me out of bed. They fed me with harish and ‘asit.
Ratsaby: What did you do if the baby doesn’t nurse?
David: In Y...read more
Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David
During a celebration, the men and women celebrate separately. There were some women who would give the groom a ḥenna, but without men. Only the women and the groom. Then the groom would go to the men. The bride was given a ḥenna with just women. The ḥenna – songs and dances in Arabic. The men dance and sing, but the women have it more joyful. They were kneading the ḥenna, and drum.
Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David
What did they let you do when you were little?
My mother taught me straw weaving. For a living, I would weave and my husband was a blacksmith.
We sold our products to non-Jews. The Jews worked with leather and my father was a shoemaker.
The relationship with the non-Jews was good. They would give us milk and cheese. The Jews had no lands, only the Arabs did. They said that the lands belong only to the Arabs.
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Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David
The first song is sung by the mother of the bride during the ḥenna ceremony.
The second song is sung whilst kneading the ḥenna, not whilst dancing.
The woman is singing about the pain in getting married. We cried whilst making the ḥenna for the woman. We cry when a woman leaves her father’s home. We shed tears. Women would sing and take out the pain whilst grinding the ḥenna.
Dedicated to my husband and son, Zecharia and Benyamin David
David: There were Jews who were informers. The man informed the governor and the governor sent two soldiers to our house. My mother begged: “I am a widow, have mercy on me”. The soldiers ignored her pleads. Back in the day, when my father was alive, we used to bribe the soldiers who came to our house with food. We hid the pots between the straw.
When the Imam died, the pogroms began. It was the Lord’s gift to us to come to the Land of Israel. The pogroms...read more
In memory of my dear parents: Raḥel daughter of Rabbi Yiḥya Ḥamami, and Rabbi Binyamin son of Yiḥya Yosef - that raised me, educated me and brought me to this day with wisdom, understanding, diligence and integrity
To my children: Rina, Ruth, Dan, Nisim, Jacob, Yehuda and ʾOrly
In memory of my dear parents: Raḥel daughter of Rabbi Yiḥya Ḥamami, and Rabbi Binyamin son of Yiḥya Yosef - that raised me, educated me and brought me to this day with wisdom, understanding, diligence and integrity