Rehab Eldalil

Placing collaboration at the heart of her project, Rehab Eldalil reunites with her roots, as she returns to the Bedouin community of St. Catherine, in South Sinai, Egypt. In The Longing of The Stranger Whose Path Has Been Broken, she examines the idea of belonging and interconnectedness between people and land.

Members of the Bedouin community have historically faced discrimination, stigmatization and stereotyping in Egyptian society. In Eldalil’s work, they become participants in the creative process, exercising their agency and voice. She links their commentary—expressed through embroidery, poetry, sound, and storytelling—with her photographic work to examine issues of representation and social injustice. The final outcome is a complementary collection of photographs, written content, embroidery, artefacts and multimedia.

Through the project, Eldalil attempts to understand the layers that create an identity and seek the meaning of belonging for the community. The work is also a response to the frequent othering of marginalised identities, and the tendency to flatten complex realities. By centering the voices of the Bedouin community, she hopes to build a bridge between them and Western audiences, who have long seen the Bedouins and many other indigenous communities through a lens of fetishization.