It can be said that Arab culture has never allowed motherhood to become a research question. Rather, it has been careful to fence it within a framework that intermingles the religious, the forbidden, the sacred, and the national, to maintain the status quo. Arab culture is well aware of the gravity of the question. Despite this, hardly a book omits mention of the mother. She is a major character in narratives, films, and television series. She is a powerful presence in biographies and personal histories. She is a multifaceted figure in the corridors of criminal and family courts. She is the originator of personal status and inheritance law. She connects the family to the home and is the primary instigator of female circumcision. She is more important than the bride at a wedding, and she is the one who always repeats the invitations at dawn prayer for all her children. With all this strong presence, motherhood remains a given that does not provoke an inquisitive mind or prompt questions or inquiry.