Introduction

With the end of the British Mandate and the outbreak of the 1948 War, the communal organization of Muslims in Israel collapsed completely. In Israel, the Beduin, too, were amenable to the shari'a court in matters of personal status. The position of Muslim women, as of the general population in Israel, has been determined not only by progressive Knesset legislation but also by demographic, economic, cultural and social factors. In 1968 the Muslim population of Israel formed about three-quarters of the total non-Jewish population. The participation rate of Muslim women in the civil labor force in 1961 was 11" of the total number of Muslim women from the age of 14 upward. About two-thirds of the women employed in the Arab sector worked in agriculture. About 14" of Muslim women could read and write at the time of the 1961 census. The patriarchal extended family in Israel was rapidly disintegrating and was being superseded by the nuclear fa.