My grandmother tells me how women used to be the spine of Bedouin society. When we lived in tents, women didn't just sew them, they also decided when the family would pick them up and move. While their men go out to work in mainstream Israel, primarily as laborers or self-employed businessmen, wives and daughters cannot do so. When we moved into permanent homes, all of women's traditional skills were laid aside, like in a museum. Ninety-nine percent of our women are illiterate.
Women have no self-esteem, no communal feeling.
While still in high school, Amal and some girlfriends took it upon themselves to change the situation. In 1991, they created the Lagiya Women's Committee, offering the women of their tribe courses in health care, home economics, reading and writing, and regular social events to bolster their sense of community as well as their sense of self. But the Committee, totally run by volunteers from the village, began to founder a year ago for lack of funds and organizational experience. How to register as a non-profit association. How to write proposals and press releases, how to do fund-raising, how to work together.