The Egyptian National Center For Social Research on Friday released a study indicating that the customs of nomads in the Sinai Peninsula secure all woman's rights, in contrast with the treatment of women in societies classified as very "civilized."
The study, cited by the official Kuwaiti news agency (KUNA) said that the nomadic society in the Sinai obligated all men, whether father, brother or spouse, to respect women. It said that husbands had no right to beat women outside the house, adding that if this was done, the husband would be fined by a judge and that the woman would be entitled to file for divorce.
"If the husbands seek another wife over his first one, he has to offer his old spouse a gift known as kobarah," the study said, adding that "the first wife is entitled to complain to the head of the tribe for shortages in the house, which the husband would be asked by the tribe's head to make up for."
These customs ban eviction of women from the house at night. If this is done, the study said, the transgressor's punishment would then be even more severe.
The study said that if a woman was thrown out during the day, compensation between nearly $50 to $150 dollars should be paid to try to please her.
The authors said women in the nomadic society were not "a neglected member of the community."
However, the customs are not free of negative aspects, as women do not receive their rights to inheritance. Women are deprived of inheritance in various parts of the Sinai.
According to subsinai.com, most of the Sinai's inhabitants are Bedouins, who claim descent from the tribes of the Hejaz on the Arabian Peninsula, and thus rate themselves as having some of the purest Arab genealogies. Only the Jebeliya tribe is anomalous, tracing its origins to the Caucasus.
Traditionally, each tribe roamed its own territory in search of grazing land and settled around local oases. The Mizayna claimed the land between El Tor and Nuweiba; Tarabeen a swathe from Nuweiba to El Arish; the Jebeliya the Saint Catherine's region, and so on.
The number of tribes in the Sinai is uncertain, ranging from 14 to 27, depending on which of their subdivisions are counted.
Unsurprisingly, added the report, the Bedouins took advantage of discarded weaponry to resist outside authority, attempts to settle the nomads having little success until the 1970s.
By providing employment and exposing the Bedouin to Western comforts, recently built coastal tourist resorts have reportedly had an equally profound effect on traditional lifestyles. Nowadays, many earn their living through tourism, taxi driving or construction work, and stone huts with corrugated iron roofs and TV antennae are more common than black tents – Albawaba.com
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