Background:

The interviewee is an English lady working as a marketer for a project that aims to support Bedouin women in North Sinai, Egypt. The project is funded by a Dutch NGO, and is focused specifically on bringing women together for embroidery and weaving. The Bedouins traditionally live a nomad-life and make products generally intended for themselves (e.g. to build tents), the project aims at trying to sell these products to outsiders in order to increase the income of the Bedouin ladies, who are quite often very poor.

Side A:

The Dutch NGO that funds the project will not be doing so for very long and expects the women to support themselves from then onwards. The marketer involved in this project, along with the women are quite worried as to how this will be feasible for them. The interviewee believes that “women’s issues” has become somewhat of a buzzword and suggests that not only a portion of the population should be in focus, but rather the entire population.

It is Bedouin tradition to make products that are used solely by them, but the project aims at expanding their market to Cairo, whereby their income will increase. By means of this project, there are now shops/galleries in al-Zamālek where Bedouin products are up for sale. While the marketer believes this is promising for their income, on the other hand she is worried that Bedouin traditions may slowly vanish.