Published: 8 June 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
'I wanted to enter a field where there weren’t a lot of women from my community,' says Ameera Abu Jafar, who will be among the first Bedouin women to join the scene
FROM THE GET-GO, Ameera Abu Jafar said she refused to have her picture taken. She’s 26, from the Bedouin town of Rahat, and she adheres to religious conventions, including the hijab covering most of her head. Yet she is considered a pioneer in her society.
Abu Jafar will be among the first Bedouin women to join the Israeli high-tech scene. She’s in the final stretch of a software development course; placement with an employer in Be’er Sheva is being arranged in parallel.
“I wanted to enter a field where there weren’t a lot of women from my community,” she says. “I took responsibility for myself. I decided to be one of the first women to get into this field and be an example to the other girls. I want very much for women, Jews or Bedouin, to know that they can do it. Every woman can do it. I want to demonstrate this to my surroundings.”
Abu Jafar’s path to high-tech wasn’t smooth. Back in high school she liked math and intended to get into computers, but her high school didn’t offer advanced math or computer studies.
After high school, due to financial stress, she gave up her dream of going for a bachelor’s degree and instead enrolled in a practical engineering course in the Technological College of Be’er Sheva.
“I worked while I was in school; I was a teacher’s aide in math and also worked as a supermarket cashier,” she says.
Breaking the code: Meet the Bedouin women breaking into Israeli high-tech (Haaretz)
'I wanted to enter a field where there weren’t a lot of women from my community,' says Ameera Abu Jafar, who will be among the first Bedouin women to join the Israeli high-tech scene
Photo: Bedouins take part in the high-tech training course (Eliahu Hershkovitz)
