Sisters behind the Iron Curtain: Sarah and Hagar Story Across Time

A moment at the Society of Biblical Literature conference in San Antonio in 2021 became a turning point in my understanding of how we interpret biblical narratives in contextual and postcolonial studies. As scholars discussed concepts of white privilege with absolute certainty, I found myself wondering if any of them had experienced being a "privileged white woman" in 1980s Czechoslovakia. This disenchantment revealed a crucial gap in biblical scholarship – one that bridges ancient texts with the lived experiences of women under state socialism.

My research emerged from this realization. It explores how the biblical story of Sarah and Hagar can illuminate patterns of survival, resistance, and sometimes complicity in women's experiences under socialism and post-socialism.

The Sarah-Hagar narrative in Genesis 16 and 21 presents a complex web of power relations. Sarah, unable to conceive, gives her Egyptian slave Hagar to Abraham as a surrogate. When Hagar becomes pregnant, tensions escalate between the women, leading to cycles of dominance, submission, and resistance. This isn't a simple tale of oppressor and victim – both women navigate complex power structures within Abraham's household. Sarah, while holding power over Hagar, is herself constrained by patriarchal expectations and her infertility. Hagar, though enslaved, finds ways to assert her agency.

The parallels with women's experiences under socialism are striking. Under the socialist regime, women often found themselves in paradoxical positions – simultaneously privileged in their professional roles yet vulnerable to state surveillance, holding power over other women while being powerless within the larger system. Just as Sarah and Hagar lived under religious patriarchal rule, women in socialism operated within forcibly established sameness (not true equality), often dealing with their own version of the "Barthleby patriarch" at home – indecisive and unhelpful, much like the biblical Abraham.

Women under socialism faced the notorious "double burden" – expected to be both perfect workers and perfect mothers. While scholars have documented this phenomenon, these experiences remain largely overlooked in intersectional feminism and postcolonial studies, and are virtually absent from biblical scholarship. Under constant state surveillance at work, many women sought refuge in less prestigious, lower-paying positions or retreated to the relative privacy of their homes to escape the watchful eye of "Big Brother." Unlike in Western countries, men were not encouraged to participate in household duties or child-rearing.

The concept of "surrogacy" operates on multiple levels in both contexts. Some women, like Sarah, used others' reproductive and domestic labor to maintain their professional positions. Others chose motherhood as a form of resistance to state socialist demands for male-defined equality. This "maternal surrogacy" became a way to avoid compromising with the regime or submitting to its masculinist vision of emancipation. Motherhood emerged as a multivalent site of both power and resistance, challenging both traditional patriarchal structures and state socialist notions of gender equality.

My research spans the post-socialist countries combining biblical scholarship with psychoanalytical theory and post-socialist feminist insights. We're examining how contemporary women in post-socialist contexts interpret these biblical narratives through their own experiences, including diverse perspectives from secular and religious participants, urban and rural voices, and varying educational backgrounds.

The experiences of white women under state socialism reveal that privilege – like whiteness – takes on very different meanings in different contexts. Their stories, like those of Sarah and Hagar, remind us that understanding women's struggles for autonomy requires looking beyond simple categories to see the complex ways women navigate power within constraining systems.

Post-socialist societies are still processing their past, much like the Israelites' forty years in the desert, experiencing both progress and setbacks in feminist efforts. The biblical narrative of Sarah and Hagar offers crucial insights into how women's choices about motherhood and professional life under state socialism created complex networks of dependency, resistance, and compromise that continue to shape post-socialist feminist consciousness today.

This research matters because it brings parallel experiences from very different contexts into dialogue. What new insights about power, survival, and resistance emerge when we read this biblical story through the experiences of women who lived under state surveillance? How might the experiences of women who had to master the art of survival in confined spaces help us understand the subtle power dynamics in this ancient text? By exploring these questions, we gain new perspectives on both ancient narratives and contemporary struggles for recognition and autonomy.

Our societies still grapple with these legacies, and understanding these complex patterns of power, resistance, and survival remains crucial for addressing current challenges in gender relations and social justice.