The Bedouin

Hafsa belongs to a Bedouin tribe which has inhabited the north-west of the Arabian Peninsula since long before the creation of Saudi Arabia. A mother of eleven, she was raised according to a traditional nomadic way of life where tents and camels were the only shelter and transport available. Hafsa’s family continues to spend part of the year roaming the deserts with her family; the rest they now spend settled on a small plot of land on the outskirts of Tabuk, where they have constructed more permanent shelters. Hafsa has no birth certificate but believes she is currently in her mid-fifties.

I gave birth to eleven children out there in the sands - five boys and six girls. There weren’t any doctors; at least I’d never met one. AlhamduLillah, every one of them survived. And I did too.

We didn’t have any of this technology. There was no electricity. Fire was life. When we’re far out in the desert we still bury the meat in the sand to make it last longer. We take our milk