Disablement, gender, and deafhood among the Negev Arab-Bedouin

A high incidence of deafness occurs among the native Arab inhabitants of the Negev (the southern arid region of present-day Israel). Dynamics both within the Bedouin population, as well as Bedouin encounters with state services and the Israeli-Jewish deaf community, are leading to the gradual emergence of a new sense of Deafhood among the Negev Bedouin. This paper concerns the differential impact of these processes on deaf Bedouin women and men. The first aim of this paper is to consider the state of deaf people among the Negev Bedouin. The second is to provide an analysis of the intersection of deafness and gender, focusing on the way marriage and schooling inform the lives of deaf Bedouin women and men, and shape their different lived experience and structure of opportunities.