Ibrahim's Tent – WomenPower

A home of pure poetry, tents made of 100% natural goats’ hair, in the traditional way, handmade with thousands of years of experience. These tents are woven on an ancient, traditional loom, and are suitable for all occasions: weddings, funerals, ecotourism, solidarity tents or even garden shade for city-dwellers. All sizes are available (per metre). The tents are cool in summer, warm in winter, rain-proof, environmentally friendly and sustainable.

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WOMENPOWER is a Jahalin Solidarity project funded by the Canada Feminist Fund (“CFF”) working to empower Palestinian Bedouin women refugees living under occupation, by upholding Bedouin cultural heritage via goats’ hair tent-making, providing tools for sustainable income generation, to strengthen the entire community. This is being achieved by reversing the downward spiral of marginalisation, allowing women again to have access to income, as previously when they went to markets, now inaccessible due to Israeli occupation closure policies, to sell their dairy products.

In a small, humble way, this project also works to mitigate #climatechange by reviving Bedouin desert survival mechanisms, as survival in desert is based on disappearing wisdom handed down orally by Bedouin over thousands of years, including, presumably, Jewish and Islamic forefathers such as Abraham/ Ibrahim. Hence the tents will be sold under the branding:  “Ibrahim’s Tent”. The intention is for this process to be of value to coming generations who will have to deal with the increasing desertification of this region.

As stated in a Bread for the World report: “When Women Flourish … We Can End Hunger,” there are clear “links between global women’s empowerment and ending hunger and malnutrition. One cannot be achieved without the other. Gender equality depends on strengthening women’s bargaining power, reducing their burden of unpaid work, and building a collective voice in public life.”

Womanpower, a Jahalin Solidarity project, funded by The Canada Feminist Fund

The project works so that women Bedouin will regain economic independence on the one hand, becoming more fully functional members of this deprived and oppressed society, which will be invigorated by women's increased ability to generate income, thereby also restoring previous respect for them and indirectly reducing their marginalisation.