Fatma: Bedouin Comedy Queen

February 20, 2007 - 7:30 AM by

Fatma, Israel’s first Bedouin comedienne, is leaving ‘em in stitches.

A 43-year-old mother of seventeen (CHILDREN…OMG!) she was married at 12 and gave birth to her first a year later. Of course she incorporates that rather significant factoid into her act.

Garbed in traditional black jalabiya, Fatma warms up audiences by divulging about herself and her background i.e. her clan lives in Balad Yousef Village – “the end of the world and then you turn right. Anyone who makes a mistake and turns left gets to Gaza” – and she spikes her act with generous doses of whooping ululation and snippets of belly dancing.

And how, she tells audiences, does she cope with sharing hubbie with three other wives?

The youngest goes with the herd, the one before her sews and embroiders, the oldest cooks in the kitchen “and only I travel, babble away, take your money and then go home.”

Tags: • Category: History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Profiles 

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