Is the Bedouin tribe in the book a real tribe?

We purposely placed our tribe of Bedouin in between where well-known tribes now live in Israel, although the other tribes that they talk about are real. We wanted the freedom to create fictitious characters without making statements about specific people.

But we would encourage readers to do research on their own about current day Bedouin--a very rich and interesting race of people. Because of modern considerations, the lives of Bedouin living in different countries, or even in different locales in Israel, are very different. (For example, the Bedouin in Northern Israel tend to get along better with the Israeli government and have more autonomy than those living in the Negev.)

Little has been written for public consumption about the women of the Israeli Bedouin tribes, and much of our research came from digging deep and talking to scholars and teachers who work with the tribes, many of which are currently in crisis. However, several interesting books about Bedouin in other countries are available, including WRITING WOMEN'S WORLDS and VEILED SENTIMENTS by Lila Abug-Lughod and MARRIED TO A BEDOUIN by Marguerite van Geldermalsen. These books are based on experiences that took place over 20 years ago, but they do give very fascinating first-hand insights to a normally "closed" culture.

There is also a movie called YELLOW ASPHALT which is available on Netflix that tells three Bedouin stories. It uses a cast of Jahalin Bedouin (as well as a couple of well-known Israeli actors).