The POW wife - Another perspective on heroism

Every life is a story, and every story can be narrated from the perspective of its different protagonists. War stories, particularly heroic ones, are normally recounted from a male perspective. In this paper, the cases of Israeli POWs are presented from their wives' points of view. The role of the "hero's wife" assigned by the norms of Israeli society to women in general, is epitomized in the discourse of and about POWs' wives. Their narratives describe the sudden separation, the experience of coping with the long, uncertain period of waiting, and their reactions to the reunion. Out of these voices, the social role of the POW's wife is constructed. Her life, like that of her husband, acquires public interest and prominence which hold both positive and negative implications. Her role is defined by total loyalty to her man, the victim of hostile warfare, and by the limited autonomy allowed her temporarily during his absence. Society tends to negate or diminish the courage and the suffering experienced by the POW's wife, as she undergoes her own trauma and adjustment to political-personal events of her life.