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World
Bootstraps
Jo-Ann Mort
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Lakiya, Israel
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Saar i lo
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fEWELLERS r GEMOLOGISTS
Devlin Premier Jeweller Since 1917
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SOOSCHUBOT
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A20
January 1 . 2009
very April, the sheep in Israel's
southern Negev are sheared by
their Bedouin herders, begin-
ning a process that ends with the pro-
duction of hefty rugs woven by women
from this Bedouin village using a 4,000-
year-old technique.
Though the method is old, the women
who run the project are part of a new
generation of Bedouin whose work is
empowering women who for millen-
nia were denied social and economic
opportunities in their conservative
society.
At Lakiya Negev Weaving, a project of
Sidreh — a nonprofit Bedouin women's
organization supported by Shatil, the
grass-roots Israeli arm of the New Israel
Fund — everyone involved in the pro-
duction of the rugs, pillows and wall
hangings is a woman, from shepherd to
weaver to manager.
The group's showroom is situated at
the entrance to the town of Lakiya, just
off the main highway and a few minutes'
drive from Beersheva.
It wasn't always in so prominent a
location.
The group's first building, established
shortly after it was created in 1991, was
burned to the ground and its money
stolen before the weavers could be paid.
"I think we were a threat to the men:'
says Hala Abushareb, a Bedouin woman
in her mid-20s who runs the showroom.
"But now the daughters see that their
mothers are useful. When women are
oppressed, men see it. It's OK when
women get paid. A woman pays money
to send her daughter to school and to
university when she didn't go herself
and now the attitude is different."
Abushareb has a degree in Middle
Eastern studies from Ben-Gurion
University in Beersheva.
Israel's Bedouin population numbers
roughly 160,000, with the vast major-
ity in the Negev. Bedouin women, who
used to work in agriculture and weave
tents for shelter, are still in transition in
a society that is undergoing dramatic
change.
Once agricultural nomads, Bedouin
in Israel are increasingly adopting life-
Photo by Thomas A. Sc hm idt
Bedouin women weave tradition and economics together.
A woman dying wool for the Lakiya Weaving Project in the Negev.
styles similar to those of other Israelis
— building permanent homes, work-
ing in non-agricultural jobs, sending
their children to school and living in
established towns or the Bedouin city
of Rahat, about 20 minutes north of
Beersheva.
Some have made these adjustments
willingly; others have clashed with the
Israeli government over grazing rights,
land use and politics.
Despite these changes, Bedouin
women are still mostly discouraged
from working outside the home. Lakiya
Negev Weaving has been successful by
enabling the women to work from their
homes.
No longer weaving tents since most
families live in homes made of adobe,
stone or corrugated tin, the women of
Lakiya Negev Weaving keep the ancient
Bedouin tradition of weaving alive by
creating carpets and other items. As
a condition of their employment, the
women also must agree to take part in
an educational seminar on women's
health.
The organization employs about 70
women, down from a high of 150 when
the economy was stronger. Last year,
the women produced 64 carpets, some
of which ended up in Israel's fanciest
neighborhoods. At the European Union's
headquarters in Tel Aviv, a room called
Lakiya is filled with rugs made by the
women. The rugs also sell in stores in
Jerusalem and Haifa.
After wool is sheared from sheep, the
puffs are spun into raw wool by hand on
a wooden spindle, then dipped into huge
boiling vats of dye before being placed in
the sun to dry. The women take the wool
and weave it on a hand-made loom, lean-
ing over it on their knees as the wool is
held up across two cinderblocks.
The rugs feature either the five tra-
ditional Bedouin colors — black, deep
green, dark red, white and dark blue
— or contemporary weaves from a pal-
ette of 35 colors.
Students from Israel's top fashion
design college, Shenkar in Tel Aviv, pro-
vided the weavers with contemporary
designs on paper strips, and the rug's
buyers come from all over Israel.
Sometimes, if a customer orders a
large rug, neighbors and friends come
to the weaver's home to help out, or the
rug is assigned to a home where several
women in a family can work on it at
once.
The showroom near Lakiya's entrance
doubles as a meeting place for the
women, who often come with their young
daughters in tow.
"It's also a social meeting','Abushareb
says. "The women enjoy it. They work a
few hours a day, every woman on her own
schedule:"