Title_ On a New Path: Microfinance as a Tool to Help Bedouin Women Extricate Themselves from Poverty in Israel

Author_ Nuzha ALLASSAD ALHUZAIL

Pages 77-107

Abstract_ The lives of Bedouin women in Israel who live in poverty are complex and difficult. They suffer from dual discrimination—by the Bedouin society in which they live and by the state of which they are citizens. Microfinance provides a tool with which these women can improve their lives. Based on in-depth interviews with 15 Bedouin women participating in a microfinance program, this study finds that their efforts to extricate themselves from poverty perpetuate the polarity of their lives: they experience personal strengthening in the process of gaining economic independence, but also the weakening of family support during that process. The women must also overcome a lack of state support for their business initiatives. Nevertheless, these women are able to manage these difficulties and improve the conditions of their lives. In the process, they became important agents of change in Bedouin communities and in the wider society of Israel.

Keywords_ Bedouin women, Poverty, Microfinance, Microcredit, Social change, Bedouin society, Negev