Victims of polygamy
Sarab Aburabia-Queder; 11/10/08
We in the Bedouin community do not normally discuss sensitive issues like polygamy with the general Israeli public. We have already seen that any interest that may exist among Jewish Israelis in this subject extends only to the “demographic” implications of multiple marriages among the Bedouin. But the topic is important on a purely human level, and needs to be placed on the public agenda, because it is something that hurts us, the female members of the country’s Arab population. In fact, it is something that should interest the entire public, which rarely knows much about what’s going on next door, among the Arab citizens of the state. Unfortunately, nearly every Bedouin woman in the Negev is at risk of becoming a “first wife” if we don’t take action against the phenomenon.