The Red Tent

Dinah is the protagonist of The Red Tent. As the only daughter of Jacob, she embodies the expectations put upon women, as well as the dangers and joys of being a woman in her culture. She is described as beautiful, enough so that she enchants husbands Shalem and Benia at first sight. Dinah is affectionate, intelligent, and loyal. She enjoys being her family’s only daughter and is enriched by her relationships with women—specifically, her birth mother Leah and three aunts Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah—whose womanhood is defined by entry into the titular red tent, a safe space for menstruation. She grew up believing she would uphold similar traditions on her four mothers’ behalf, until her brothers Simon and Levi murder her husband Shalem and the other men of Shechem in retaliation for her “defilement” by Shalem. Dinah curses her father and brothers in her own act of retaliation, and starts a new life in Egypt with would-be mother-in-law Re-nefer’s help. In Egypt, she gives birth to a son by Shalem, Bar-Shalem or Re-Mose (“child of Re”), befriends fellow midwife Meryt, and marries gentle carpenter Benia.

Dinah is a skilled midwife and helps many women give birth, finding childbirth and childrearing sacred experiences taught by Rachel and midwife Inna.