Trapped Between National Boundaries and Patriarchal Structures: Palestinian Bedouin Women and Polygamous Marriage in Israel

There are no accurate data on the prevalence of polygamy in Palestinian society in Israel, but many estimates indicate that polygamy is about 20/36 percent of Bedouin households. Moreover, in the past three decades, there has been a consistent increase in the number of polygamous marriages in the Arab Bedouin sector. Under international law, polygamy is perceived as discriminatory and is associated with all forms of harms to women: physical, mental, sexual, reproductive, and economic. Under the Israeli law, according to the punitive code, polygamy is a criminal offence. However, under the Sharia law, that governs family laws for Muslims in Israel, polygamy is permitted. As a consequence, due to the fact that the state does not enforce the punitive code for the Bedouin citizens, polygamous marriage is valid and practiced. This ambivalence of the Israeli legislature and the legal system violates the human rights of Arab Bedouin women and creates a situation in which they are excluded from the law by the different legal systems: criminal law, the Shari’a and customary law. It raises significant questions about Arab Bedouin women’s citizenship and human rights and about the role of family laws in the Zionist-Jewish state, i.e., a state that segregates Bedouin society by supporting the traditional tribal system and by condoning practices such as polygamy. The analyses of these issues, which illustrate the strength of the “fortress nation” at the global era, constitute the main axis of this paper.