Hereditary Deafness in Bedouin Tribe

Pride is an issue in the Bedouin community that is causing genetic mutations to occur when having children. “Hamula [the tribe] is everything” (Rosenthal 295). The members of the Bedouin tribes believe that all decisions are made through the hamula. The tribe therefore decides who the children of the tribe will marry. Tribal dynasties are patrilineal, and families want inheritances and dowries to stay within the family. Because of this, the hamula decides to marry children within the tribe. Brothers will marry their sisters and cousins will marry each other, keeping the tribal purity and honor. The Bedouin know that some mutations can occur when marrying within the family, but they believe that if Allah wills it, then it is so. Although some Bedouin tribes have started to marry outside of their tribes to stop the genetic mutations, others refuse to marry outside of their tribes, in fear of ruining their family purity.



The AI-Sayed Tribe is located in the Northern Negev, just south of Be’er Sheva. This is one of the tribes who marry within their own group. Ten years ago at Ben-Gurion University, they took a survey of the people in this tribe. Out of all the married couples, 27 percent were between cousins and 65 percent of all married couples were somehow related. Because this tribe is so closely related, a genetic mutation has occurred when having children, causing many children to be born deaf. An estimated one-quarter of all of the members of the tribe carry the genetic gene. The gene, connexin, can be recessive and it will only be passed down when both parents carry the gene. Out of the approximate 3,000 members of the AI-Sayed tribe, over 150 babies are born deaf. This number is drastically larger than the world average.

After finding out the cause of the deafness, researchers explained to the tribe that they could stop the cycle and get tested to stop the genetic mutation. Many of the tribal members do not believe the researchers and say that Allah controls how their children are born. Some of them believe that if a pregnant woman was to look at a deaf person during her pregnancy, the child would be born deaf as well. The tribe has come to accept the deaf members of their community and not see it as an illness anymore. The deaf people have become ordinary members of society and it is not uncommon to have at least one deaf child.

The children who are deaf do not have many education options. The schools in Israel use Hebrew, but the Bedoin communities speak Arabic. The deaf children are forced to learn for languages to communicate: Arabic, Bedouin sign language, Hebrew and international sign language. Some children are not given the option to learn sign language. Children use sign language with their deaf friends in the Bedouin community, but their families might not know sign language. They use paper and pen to write back and forth between each other. Some of the parents are upset because they wish their children could have a better education. There is a lack of communications therapists to help these children strive in the world. “Out of the 1,562 certified communications therapists in Israel, only 34 speak Arabic, and not one of them is active in the southern region.”



There is a school nearby that can accommodate deaf students, but the number of children they accept is limited. The Niv School in Be’er Sheva is accepting fewer students each year, showing that it might be closing soon. It has stopped accepting new students, and the numbers are decreasing rapidly. Because most deaf students cannot attend this school, they are forced to go to other regular schools near the area. These children cannot understand in classrooms so they are placed with autistic children and severely retarded students. The intelligence of the deaf students is not less than that of a hearing student, but they are placed in these classrooms nonetheless.

Although the AI-Sayed tribe might want to reach outside of their own tribe to marry others and move out of the genetic mutation circle they are in, they cannot. Other tribes see them as less than normal and peasant farmers. For five generations, they have been marrying within their own tribe and since there were more women than men, the men had to marry more than one woman. This only helped the mutation to grow and spread throughout the tribe. Although the AI-Sayed tribe is saying that the other tribes will not marry those in their tribe, Sheikh Akal al-Atrash (one of the most respected in the south) says that the AI-Sayed will not marry outside the tribe and are only isolating themselves. He says that he hopes it will change in the future, but for now it is their fault for marrying within their own tribe and when they want to change the outcome, they can.




This article was posted on the Jewish Deaf Community Center website. The person who wrote this article has a view of favoring the deaf people and culture. Although they make it seem like it is a horrible situation, and that the AI-Sayed are being picked on, the author does use facts to back up the view. There is also an opposing view at the end of the article, making it seem less biased.