Shifting Sands: Bedouin Women at the Crossroads

Pictured: Bedouin child

Credit: APT

Dr. Ruth Westheimer explores shifting gender roles and the challenges of modernization on Israel's Bedouin people, an Arab ethnic group with a strong sense of tradition.

Shifting Sands: Bedouin Women at the Crossroads airs Friday, October 5, 2012 at 9 p.m. on WXXI World (cable 524/DT21.2).

The Bedouin, an Arab ethnic group with a strong sense of tradition, culture and lifestyle, retain their ancient nomadic ways despite the ever-encroaching modern world. But change is coming to the desert. Bedouin women, traditionally a group with little control over their destinies in the male-dominated society, have begun to look beyond the constraints of their culture to seek greater equality. Dr. Ruth follows the personal stories of some of these courageous women — a doctor, a lawyer, a businesswoman and the head of a weaving collective — to illustrate how their tumultuous journeys led to social and individual transformation.