This story is from biblical times and as such follows The Bible and the  Genesis 34,  but it is different in many important ways.

It is explaining how women in time of their periods needed to stay in red tent, telling each other’s story to amuse themselves.

It is the story of women in the men times. No woman has a leadership role in the Bible. No woman in the Old Testament has a role but to give birth to progeny. Even when there is a woman appearing in the Old Testament she is usually only mentioned in the listing.

So this is a story about Dinah – the daughter of Jacob, only sister of Joseph. She is raped by a prince whose father then offers to pay a dowry so that his son might wed her. Jacob agrees on the condition that all the men of the town are circumcised according to their family’s tradition. The king agrees. While all the men are still in pain from their circumcision, Jacob’s sons raid the town and slaughter them all.

Dinah then drops out of the Bible and is never heard from again.

The Red Tent tells this story from Dinah’s point of view, and it is the story as we have never heard it before. She begins with the story of her mothers, Jacob’s wives: Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. She then tells her story…

 

 

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