Hagar, Sarah and Eve discuss the beginning of the world and the position of women.
A twelve year old Iranian girl rides on her bike with her hair flowing freely in the wind and is beheaded for immodesty.
A Jewish granddaughter challenges her grandmother’s vision of womanhood.
In Jerusalem a Jewish woman is harassed by Jews and Muslims for having bare arms.
An Iranian woman who has left for the West must face a challenge from the women left behind.
The play examines how monotheism sees the role of women.
SONG
TUNISIAN LULLABY
She who gives birth to a girl
Deserves to be hit with a pottery mug
And her husband not to sleep with her any more
She deserves his anger
She deserves to be tied up
But she who gives birth to a boy
Deserves the minaret and the village
Deserves a basket of henna
Jingling anklets
A sheep slaughtered for her
Great celebration
A big barbecue
And the fat tail of a sheep
She who brings good news of a son
Deserves a camel load of good things
A house facing East towards Mecca
Servants and slaves
A good foreign slave
A handsome man servant
And she who bears a girl
Deserves a blow with a mug
Deserves to stay at home
To be hidden away
Production History
Premiered 1983 Drill Hall
Painting by Anne Sassoon
© 2026 Julia Pascal. This play is protected by copyright law. This piece may not be fed into any LLM or other AI software for any reason. By downloading this script, you agree not to upload it to Scribd or similar websites. No part of this script (or any other scripts found on the New Play Exchange, my website, or the internet) may be uploaded to and/or used to train artificial intelligence chatbots, systems, applications and the like.