confused by the father

I watched this for the first time and I was very confused about the father. He ignored his first wife and his daughters with her, spent all his time and money on the second wife, didn't keep the electricity on, ran over the clothes she washed, basically just humiliated her and made her life miserable. I really thought he didn't give a crap about her and didn't care much for the daughters either. Then towards the end he hugs her and gets really upset that she might not take him back. In the argument with his oldest daughter, and implies he threw her out because he had to (??). Is it part of their culture that they're supposed to spoil the new wife and ignore/throw out the first wife? Why did he even take a 2nd wife if he still loves the first wife? He tells his daughter he didn't have a choice, but it seems like he is the one with all the power making the decisions. Anyone familiar with Bedouin culture can explain all this?