Bedouin – Travelscribe

This is (probably) my last post of 2011. It’s been an eventful year – uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East have brought many frustrations – but also new opportunities. As well as writing purely about travel I have branched out into more in-depth features: trying to tell the stories behind the news. One of the stories I heard is that of an old Bedouin sheikh who I met in the desert, near Jerusalem in Palestine. He hosted me overnight in his goat-hair tent, and recounted memories from his childhood over sweet tea and bitter coffee. When he dies, a whole way of life will die with him, as the Bedouin are being ‘resettled’ – not only in Palestine, but throughout much of the Middle East. Here, in 500 words, is his story.

Sheikh-pic-adjusted-lo-res — Sheikh Ishmael Ali al-Rashayda © Gail Simmons

Palestine’s silent feminist revolution (BBC)

I’ve recently come back from a trip to Palestine where I was walking on a new hiking trail, Abraham’s Path, and where I stayed with a Palestinian family in the village of Kufr Malek. I was very struck by how the village women were striving to get themselves educated and into the workplace, often earning more than the men. Tourism projects, such as Abraham’s Path, were playing an important part in this.

I spoke about this rise of women in Palestinian society on the BBC World Service programme ‘From Our Own Correspondent‘ (04.40 min into the podcast) on Thursday 26 May. If you’d like to read it, the full text of my piece will shortly be available under this photo of the Bedouin sheikh (in whose tent I also stayed in Palestine).

And if you are based in the UK and want to walk on Abraham’s Path in Palestine, this company can arrange it for you. If you are not in the UK contact this organisation.