Women’s Empowerment: Employment, Education, Equality
For the founders of our organization, improving the status of Bedouin women was deeply connected with both the personal, economic and educational empowerment of women. They initiated the Desert Embroidery Project to realize this goal. Today we continue to develop and search for solutions for the empowerment of Bedouin women, children and youth.
Background
Before the Bedouin moved to permanent settlements, women enjoyed a central economic role in family life. Bedouin women herded the family flock of goats and sheep, drew water from the communal well, raised vegetables in the family plot, and educated their children in the traditions of their tribe and their religion. Women cooked over an open fire, wove and embroidered for their family, enjoyed the daily visits with their neighbors around the well, and had a wide social life despite the distances in the desert.
With the transition to permanent settlements, Bedouin women moved from the open desert to the four walls of their houses. They exchanged their traditional economic roles for the role of housewife. Their ability to contribute to the family livelihood, as well as their social life, disappeared. Women lost status and self-confidence: they needed a way to rekindle what had been lost in their new environment.
The Desert Embroidery Project and Visitor Center was established to give women the opportunity to contribute to family income by embroidering at home in their free time. Through their earnings, they could once again assume a central role in their family’s economy. Over 250 women have worked in the project since its inception and some 80 continue today. Throughout the years women from Desert Embroidery have opened their own businesses and found work outside their homes.
Empowerment Through Knowledge
The Desert Embroidery Project was not conceived solely as a source of income for women. Naama AlSana, the director of the Desert Embroidery Project and Visitor Center since its inception, understands the importance of continuing to educate women through monthly lectures, field trips, workshops and courses. These are in addition to social and holiday gatherings at our headquarters.
Some topics women have studied:
Children’s health
Home safety
Early detection of cancer
Genetic diseases and the risk of marriage among blood relatives
The importance of education for girls
Civil rights
Women’s rights
Management of family welfare
Home economics
Coping with family violence and polygamy
Empowerment Through Employment
- The Desert Embroidery Project provides employment for women in traditional embroidery, sewing, tour guiding and hospitality in the Visitor Center and through other projects like our Mobile Library.
- We organize courses to provide women with the tools needed to open home businesses in sewing and design.
- We encourage women to continue vocational training, acquire a driver’s license, and take part in employment projects in the Negev.
Empowerment through the Promotion of Women’s Rights and Social Change
-
- The women of the organization take part in conferences and events in support of women’s rights.
- We partner with other women’s organizations to protest violence against women and to support the peace process
- We work to broaden Israeli society’s knowledge about Bedouin women’s progress. Naama AlSana, a founder of the Association for the Improvement of Women’s Status in Lakia and the director of Desert Embroidery has been recognized for her work in advancing Bedouin women with the Rappaport Lifetime Award for Women Generating Change in Israeli Society and the Ben Gurion University Notable Negev Award. Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, a founder and director during our formative years, went on to found and run AJEEC, The Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality and Cooperation. She completed a PhD from McGill University and has won many prizes for her work in civil rights and peace.
- We are active in the Women Wage Peace movement which raises awareness and discussion about a political resolution to the Israel-Arab conflict.
To donate, please click here or contact us.
Meeting and Lecture in New York City
Meeting with the Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel & Other Bedouin Women’s Organizations
Naama Al Sana Receiving the Ben Gurion University Notable Negev Award
