My heroine of the day

Rania al-Oqbi (centre) Credit: Danny Makhlis/Ynet

That woman with the dark, curly hair and the gorgeous smile is Rania al-Oqbi. On the left is Avishay Braverman, the former president of Ben Gurion University; on the right is Rivka Carmi, who replaced Braverman when he decided to go into politics. The 26 year-old Bedouin woman just completed her medical degree at BGU. Now she's the first female Bedouin physician in Israel.

Haaretz published the story a couple of weeks ago, here, when Dr. al-Oqbi was still reluctant to be interviewed by the Israeli press. According to the Haaretz story, she didn't want people to think that her success was based on affirmative action; the Ynet reporter claims that she was really concerned about intimidating potential husbands.

“Traditional Bedouin men find it hard to accept my profession, which is extremely demanding. This work involves long hours, including nights. And still, there are many working Arab women,” she explained.

The Haaretz article offers some interesting information about Cultivating Medicine in the Desert, the program initiated by BGU Prof. Riad Agbaria (also a Bedouin) to attract Bedouin women to medical school. The list of obstacles they have to overcome is pretty sobering.

Just one of those stories that deserves a lot more publicity than it's likely to receive. (I like to share).

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This entry was written by Lisa Goldman and posted on June 15, 2006 at 8:40 am and filed under Main Page. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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3 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Excellent. It sounds like she is very much needed too. I hope she has a long and satisfying career and brings help to a neglected community.

1. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
It's not only difficult for Beduin women, the men also find it challenging to reach and remain in higher education. They have to confront their own communities' reluctance to support these endeavors, and then they find themselves in a world where they are singular and don't have the support systems – social, financial, educational – that most of us take for granted. Rania al-Oqbi's achievement, in light of all of this, is truly remarkable.

2. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
She certainly is a brave and hardworking and inspirational young woman! Hopefully many more young women will be inspired to follow in her footsteps. The program set up through BGU to work with and inspire high school girls toward medicine (which she took part in) is an excellent and needed one –also hopefully one which will be expanded to reach more bright and vibrant young bedouin women.

3. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm