Being a deaf Bedouin young woman: suffering in silence

Abstract

Deaf Bedouin young women must contend not only with the typical developmental tasks of young adulthood but also the traditional demands of Bedouin society. They aim to fulfill themselves and develop, but discrimination and institutional neglect, coupled with their society’s traditions, pose a complex challenge. This qualitative study of 14 deaf Bedouin young women in Israel found that they display self-esteem, apparently to cope with the challenges of being sidelined because they are young and deaf Bedouin women as well as members of the country’s Arab minority. Also, it is apparent that the hearing population has not invested sufficiently in the women’s development, making it more difficult for them to function as adults on various levels. Given this background and the cultural characteristics of Bedouin society, in which young women are tightly controlled, their options appear to be suffering in silence or engaging in life-threatening behavior.