This article was originally published by This Week in Palestine and is republished with permission.

A Bedouin woman in the Negev village of Lakiya embroiders a traditional Palestinian tapestry. (Charlotte de Bellabre, Maan Images)

On April 26th, 2007, more than 50 Bedouin women from different families and localities in the Negev desert region gathered for their annual meeting in the cool spacious hand-woven tent behind Sidreh’s offices in the village of Lakiya. The women are all members of the Lakiya Negev Weaving Project. They had come together to discuss the pros and cons of their ongoing work in the project. Some are weavers, others spinners, finishers, dyers, administrative staff, saleswomen and, most recently, tour guides.

Since 1992, women working in Lakiya have been making their own special contribution to combat some of the overwhelming problems faced by the Bedouins in the Negev. Bedouins are the indigenous people making up 25% of the population of the area, but they hold only 2% of its land. Half of the 160,000 Negev Bedouins live in seven recognized villages, and the other half live in 45 unrecognized villages.

The recognized villages were set up according to a government plan to resettle Bedouins in "townships." The unrecognized villages existed way before 1948, but the Israeli government refuses to recognize them. These villages do not appear on any map and they lack basic infrastructure. Their inhabitants are denied basic services such as running water, sewage systems, electricity, phones lines, proper education, health services and access roads.

The Negev Bedouins are in dire socio-economic circumstances. They are the poorest population in the country, have the highest rate of unemployment, the highest rate of child mortality, and the lowest rate of academic achievement. Bedouin women and children are the most marginalized: 47% of the women do not visit a doctor when in need, 47% are anaemic and 53% suffer from urinary tract infections. The women’s unemployment rate reaches 85%, and in the unrecognized villages it is over 90%.

It is here that the women of Lakiya are making a small but significant difference. With the support of Oxfam GB, the Welfare Association and others, Sidreh manages the Lakiya project as one of its programmes. Sidreh is a grassroots non-profit Arab Bedouin women’s organization aiming at improving the status of Bedouin women throughout the Negev, to empower them personally, socially and economically. In addition to the Lakiya project, Sidreh manages a Bedouin hospitality program; adult education, including literacy in both Arabic and Hebrew; health education; social development and youth leadership.

The Lakiya project and other Sidreh programs go some way in re-establishing the status of Bedouin women which was lost after 1948. Until then, women had been central to the community’s lifestyle. Their skilled labor in terms of herding, harvesting, weaving and home-keeping, including fetching water and firewood, had been the cornerstone of Bedouin life, ensuring that women were influential members of society.

After 1948, this lifestyle has disappeared with the confiscation of grazing lands and enforced abandonment of traditional ways. Women have become marginalized and many of their skills are no longer appropriate.

Bedouin children play near their homes in the village of Umm al-Nasser in the northern Gaza Strip. (Wesam Saleh, Maan Images)

As a result, women have lost their financial independence, influence, status and self-esteem. Bedouin women have found it impossible to re-establish themselves in Israel’s ‘new’ society as those over 30 have an illiteracy rate of 80%. In some villages, more than 70% of young girls drop out of school, and the Bedouin traditional patriarchal society allows polygamy, teenage marriages and domestic violence.

Historically, most Bedouin women were spinners and weavers and ensured that skills were passed from mother to daughter. Traditionally, women wove the family homes (waterproof tents from black goat wool), carpets, saddle bags, cushions, grain sacks and other essentials. Each tribe would have its own distinctive designs and one gauge of both tribal and individual family wealth was the number of decorative and functional weavings it owned. Women in the tribe known to be especially talented acquired social status from their work, giving them a deep sense of pride and achievement. Loom-setters, who were often also the local midwife and herbalist, were particularly valued and respected.

Traditional Bedouin weaving is hand-woven on ground looms with distinguished linear designs in red, blue, green, black and white. In addition, the Lakiya project has introduced complementary designs using rustic and pastel colors to create a range evoking refinement, beauty and originality. Hand spun yarn made with drop spindles from pure local Awassi sheep wool is dyed and plied ready for a group of skilled women to set on a loom created from tent pegs and pieces of wood. The tight warp faced weaving created on these rudimentary frames is both elegant and durable. Colors and yarn strength are ensured by fast dyes combined with moth-proofing.

The Lakiya Bedouin Weaving Project has helped to re-establish the value of weaving skills and preserve traditional spinning and weaving as a positive part of community identity whilst creating an income generating opportunity for women.

According to an external evaluation by the British NGO Oxfam UK, at the project’s tenth year of operation, the Lakiya project has had a major impact on women, their families and communities. The first Bedouin woman to get a driving license was someone working in the project. Illiterate women were encouraged to acquire reading and writing skills, widen their scope of knowledge and expand their horizons. The need for teamwork, especially for loom-setting, helped to rebuild women’s social networks. Perhaps most importantly it raised their self confidence, self-esteem and social status.

A Bedouin woman demonstrates the traditional way of weaving carpets in the Negev village of Lakiya. (Charlotte de Bellabre, Maan Images)

As well as using income for general family needs, many women were determined to use it so that their daughters would have better futures. They invested in education fees and now the daughters of the women involved in the project are working as teachers, nurses and even one young woman is currently studying law.

The sustainability of the Lakiya Bedouin Weaving Project is still not assured as it is still dependent on external funds. Sales are state-sensitive and went down during the first Intifada, flourished during the Palestinian-Israeli peace process but froze again due to the deep recession, the second Intifada and the recent second war against Lebanon.

Recently, Sidreh has been happy to share the unique experience of Bedouin weaving through its tourism program. The Bedouin hospitality tent hosts groups and individual visitors from the country and abroad, offering them a rare insight into the Bedouin world with weaving crafts demonstrated, quality products exhibited to view or buy and succulent cuisine. Special events, activity days, seminars and workshops are accommodated. Future plans are for Sidreh to establish a Bedouin cultural center based in Lakiya. The centre will have a conference hall, motel and many traditional attractions for tourists - weaving, crafts, embroidery, camel riding, Bedouin cuisine, herbal cosmetics and treatments.

Lakiya’s high quality products are sold directly from its showroom, at Sunbula in Jerusalem and from its website. Home-sales are popular. Products include carpets, runners, cushions, wall hangings, handbags, pouches and belts. The products are exhibited in an elegant hard copy catalog and on the project’s website, as well as on other websites, such as Lahiya Weaving Web Gallery and www.bedouinweaving.com.

International outlets include Catherine Lewis and Prudence Thorner in the USA, Marie Massenet in France and Marianne Högstedt in Switzerland. Unfortunately, due to the Arab-Israeli conflict, access to markets in the Arab countries is denied. Products can be customized to size and design using a palette of 32 colors. Delivery locally and abroad is available. Lakiya’s showroom, guest tent and the Sidreh offices are located in the village of Lakiya on the route to the Dead Sea, about one and a half hours from Jerusalem.