![\"photo](\"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/oct-17-People.17.Dr-Rania-Okby.jpg\")
<\/a>Okby\u2019s parents divorced when her father expressed his desire to marry another woman. \u201cPolygamy is a common practice in the Bedouin community,\u201d she told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cAbout 30 percent of Bedouin women are in a polygamy system. My mom didn\u2019t agree to that. She said, \u2018OK, whatever, you want to get married? OK. But, I\u2019m going to leave the house.\u2019 She left the house with six kids \u2013 four girls and two boys.\u201d<\/p>\n Okby, while in high school, spent one day a week at BGU, part of the university\u2019s recruitment programs for Bedouin high school students. One such program, Seeds of Medicine, helps identify the best students, those who have a chance to be accepted into medical school.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were two female students who did very well in the project,\u201d said Okby. \u201cWe went through interviews like other candidates for medical school. And, that\u2019s how I became a medical student.\u201d<\/p>\n In her first year in medical school, Okby had the opportunity to help deliver a baby. \u201cI remember how it felt to be part of giving birth, dealing with birth and helping women \u2026 so, I fell in love with obstetrics and gynecology \u2026 and that\u2019s how I decided to do that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As it happened, Okby went on to become the first female Bedouin doctor in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cMy whole family was proud I was accepted,\u201d she said. \u201cThey saw how hard I worked. I studied in high school five days a week and then I went another day to study in the university. And, you know what? On the seventh day, I would volunteer on a few projects.\u201d<\/p>\n Financing was not an issue, as BGU covered expenses and the university is supporting Okby while she is doing her fellowship in Toronto.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing at the university at large, the fact that there\u2019s more and more Bedouins going to BGU \u2013 especially girls \u2013 because of the Centre for Bedouin Studies, connects the Jewish community with the Bedouin community in an interesting way,\u201d said the doctor.<\/p>\n The way Okby sees it, \u201cIf you\u2019re more exposed to different people or cultures, you understand that they are human beings, just like you. It doesn\u2019t matter if they\u2019re Jewish, right? So, being exposed to one another at the university, for sure, makes it better. And the more educated people are, the more they will hopefully accept one another.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many friendships between Arabs, Bedouins and Jews. It\u2019s normal, because if you\u2019re in contact with people, you become more comfortable with them. There\u2019s a lot of Jews who volunteer in the Bedouin community, and there are some Bedouin who volunteer in the Jewish community \u2013 not necessarily in their own community.\u201d<\/p>\n What is paramount in Okby\u2019s mind is, \u201cEducation, education, education. To become equal, we have to first become empowered. Bedouins suffer from very low social economic, education and health status \u2026 everything is lower. So, to become equal, we have to be empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n During the first two months Okby was living in Toronto, a friend stayed with her, and the doctor\u2019s mom also joined her during the second month. Since September, Okby has been living on her own, along with her two daughters, in an area referred to as \u201cthe Kibbutz.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Okby, \u201cThere are about 35-40 families, Israeli families, in the area, and 97 percent of them are Jewish. Most of them are doctors who came to do their clinical fellowships, but some of them are post-doc. We live in the same area and most of our kids go to the same school, so the older kids help the new kids adapt to school.\u201d<\/p>\n Okby\u2019s youngest daughter just started Grade 1, and the parents had a party for all their kids who were starting first grade.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, during Sukkot, everyone is celebrating,\u201d said the doctor. \u201cOn exchange day, everyone who has things they don\u2019t need brings them, and everyone picks what they need. We support each other, help each other, do trips and Friday night dinners together.\u201d<\/p>\n Bedouins make up 25 percent of the Negev population. But, Okby said, \u201cIn labor and delivery, we\u2019re about 55 percent, because we give birth to a lot of kids (the average is six to seven kids), we suffer from a lot of gynecological problems, we have a high rate of relative marriages and we have a high rate of malformation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have three times the rate of neonatal deaths compared to the Jewish population. Forty percent of that is due to malformation, which is a result of relative marriages. Bedouin women [also] suffer from postpartum depression \u2013 30 percent compared to 10 percent in Jewish society.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s similar to the indigenous people here, in Canada. We have many of the same problems as the aboriginals.\u201d This is one factor Okby plans to focus on when she returns to Israel. \u201cThe university is very interested in the issue, too,\u201d said the doctor. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll have a minorities health department or something like that to research it further, to make the situation even better for those kids and mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With its Centre for Bedouin Studies and Development, Israel\u2019s Ben-Gurion University (BGU) encourages Bedouin students to enrol at the Negev university by providing financial assistance and programming aimed at retention and academic success. One of the first students to go through the BGU program is Dr. Rania Okby, who is currently doing a fellowship in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[596,1908,1910,2290],"class_list":["post-8644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-abe-chapnik","tag-ben-gurion-university","tag-bgu","tag-rania-okby"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Life in Toronto<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Understanding the issues<\/strong><\/h4>\n