First Bedouin Women Leading Visitors in Sinai

 

Surrounded by mountains and desert, Umm Yasser, a Bedouin woman, explains to a group of foreign travelers how a local plant has been used in medicine.

Among the Bedouin, women almost never work outside the home. They rarely meet with outsiders. But the 47-year-old Umm Yasser is now one of four Bedouin women working as tour guides in Egypt’s Sinai area.

“It is against our culture, but women need jobs,” Umm Yasser said. “People will make fun of us, but I don’t care. I’m a strong woman.”

The women are part of Sinai Trail, a project in which local Bedouin tribes² worked together to bring visitors to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula³.

Founded in 2015, the project has set up a 550-kilometer trail through the mountains of the peninsula. Eight different Bedouin tribes provide guides for the trail, which can take up to 42 days for visitors to complete.

Members of the tribes often feel that major tourism development in the Sinai has gone to beach resorts⁴ and desert safari⁵ companies. The Sinai Trail project has helped the tribes receive tourism money.

Until recently, all the project’s guides had been men. Ben Hoffler is the co-founder of the Sinai Trail project. He felt that was not enough. He told the Associated Press, “How can we be credible⁶ calling this the ‘Sinai Trail’ if the women aren’t involved?”

Over the years, Hoffler suggested using women as guides. But almost all the Bedouin tribes reject this idea. Only the Hamada -- one of the smallest, oldest and poorest tribes -- accepted it.

Members of the Hamada tribe¹ live in small houses along the Wadi Sahu, deep in the mountains of south Sinai. They have no running water and only have electricity for about five hours a night. The men often leave the village to find work.

Umm Yasser was the first Hamada woman to become a tour guide. She said she explored the mountains and valleys as a child. She knows the area very well. She asked the families of three other women to permit them to work as guides with her.

There are some conditions, however.

Women guides can only lead tours for female⁷ visitors. The tours cannot go overnight⁸. Each day before the sun sets, the group must return to the Hamada’s home village in Wadi Sahu. And visitors can only take pictures of the female guides when they are wearing a full covering over their face.

On a recent tour joined by Associated Press reporters, Umm Yasser and three other three women guides led 16 female visitors through the area in and around Wadi Sahu. The women they led came from Korea, New Zealand, Lebanon, European countries, and Egypt.

During the two-day tour, the group walked across mountains and valleys of dry riverbeds. The guides talked about plants and herbs. They discussed local history and told stories of the surrounding mountains.

In the evening, the group returned to the Hamada tribe’s village. The women sat on the floor of Umm Yasser’s home and visitors asked the guides about life in the village, marriage and divorce⁹.

Some younger Bedouin girls followed the group and talked about wanting to be female guides in the future.

Mohammed Salman is an older man from the Aligat Bedouin tribe. He said the project was a great step for women. “If a woman wants to work, she should be able to have the right to,” Salman said. “Many men say no, a woman’s place is at home. But I’m sick of this ideology¹⁰. She’s a human being.”

I'm Ashley Thompson.

1 tribe   

n.部落，种族，一伙人

参考例句：

• This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
• Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。

2 tribes   

n.部落( tribe的名词复数 )；（动、植物的）族；（一）帮；大群

参考例句：

• tribes living in remote areas of the Amazonian rainforest 居住在亚马孙河雨林偏远地区的部落
• In Africa the snake is still sacred with many tribes. 非洲许多部落仍认为蛇是不可冒犯的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 peninsula   

n.半岛

参考例句：

• Dalian is in the south of the Liaodong Peninsula.大连位于辽东半岛南部。
• Korean peninsula lies to the west of Japan.朝鲜半岛在日本以西。

4 resorts   

n.求助，凭借，诉诸( resort的名词复数 )；求助[凭借]的对象；采用的办法；度假胜地v.求助于或诉诸某事物，采取某手段或方法应急或作为对策( resort的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Ferry boats ply regularly between all the resorts on the lake. 渡船定时往返于湖的各旅游景点。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Other resorts could benefit from the spillover of tourists. 其他度假胜地可以从游客带来的影响中间受益。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 safari   

n.远征旅行(探险、考察)；探险队，狩猎队

参考例句：

• When we go on safari we like to cook on an open fire.我们远行狩猎时，喜欢露天生火做饭。
• They went on safari searching for the rare black rhinoceros.他们进行探险旅行，搜寻那稀有的黑犀牛。

6 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

7 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

8 overnight   

ad.前一天晚上，一夜间 a.前一天晚上的

参考例句：

• She stayed overnight in the hotel. 她在旅馆过了一夜。
• Our success is not won overnight. 我们的成功不是一夜之间得来的。

9 divorce   

n.离婚；分离；vi.离婚；vt.离婚；脱离

参考例句：

• Did he divorce his wife or did she divorce him?是他要和妻子离婚，还是妻子要和他离婚？
• None of us like the divorce of word and deed.我们都不喜欢言行不一。

10 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。