With God’s help: The future orientation of Palestinian girls in Israel growing up Muslim

This chapter examines how Sunni Muslim girls in Israel construct their future orientation. Underlying are three basic premises: (1) adolescent future orientation plays a pivotal role in guiding entrance to adulthood, (2) future orientation is shaped by contextual forces including religious–cultural setting and family environment, and (3) religious practices are shaped by local circumstances. The article consists of three parts: (1) the conceptualization of future orientation, (2) the developmental setting of Muslim girls in Israel, and (3) how they construct their future orientation. This part presents a six-step model depicting future orientation, its family antecedents and academic achievement outcomes, and empirical estimates for two pertinent future life domains: higher education and marriage and family. Employing a mixed-method approach, quantitative analyses (Structural Equation Modeling) show a good fit for each of the two empirical models. Yet, higher education has a positive effect and marriage and family has a negative effect on academic achievement. Qualitative analyses of their hopes and fears narratives indicate that these girls resolve the tension between devotion to religious-traditional life via early marriage and aspirations for emancipation via higher education by following three strategies: completing education before getting married, marrying a supportive husband, and harnessing education for the good of the collective.