Living With the Bedouins: The Men

The Bedouins are no longer nomadic in the true sense, but continue in many ways to display the signs of their past. While now they have permanent dwellings with foundations, four walls and a roof, the men think nothing of grabbing a foam mat and a blanket and sleeping in a cave, tent, at a friend's, inside a monument at Petra or in the desert a few nights out of the week. The village and its surroundings, not the dwelling itself, is their home.

Nighttime excursions often involve friends and drink (both alcoholic and tea). There is a great sense of fraternity. As far as I can tell, few hours or minutes are spent in solitude. There is always someone knocking on your door or inviting you inside theirs.

In the village the young men and boys gather at the billiards hall. The basic cement block building has three rooms – one room contains two pool tables, another a TV and DVD player usually running a recent Bruce Lee-style action movie, and a third room with two Play Stations and two full-sized car racing arcade games. I drew a crowd upon all of my visits: one, because women were a rarity inside the walls and two, because a woman running the pool table for a 5 game winning streak was even rarer.

The older men seem to spend much of their time working to support their families (plural). Unlike places in Turkey where men can have more than one wife, but rarely do, in the Bedouin Village, they do. With enough money men will have up to four (unless they land a coveted Western woman who insists on a one-wife scenario). Infidelity seems quite commonplace. When pressed on the issue, the justification is "it's our culture" - a strange statement as they sit drinking the alcohol forbidden by Islam ("their culture").

The men are responsible for "providing" (as defined by them) while the women are responsible for everything else. This can lead to a lot of time for leisure inside or outside of the home.