Support Arab women's needs in the COVID-19 crisis

Dear Friends,

We want to thank you for your continued support for Kayan – Feminist Organization, and to update you on the work we have been doing to support the needs of Arab Palestinian women in Israel during the continued Covid-19 pandemic.

This month saw the launch of the annual 16 Days Against Gender Based Violence Campaign (25 November – 10 December). Arab Palestinian women face a huge amount of violence as women in a patriarchal society, and as an oppressed minority in Israel. The theme of this years’ campaign is how masculinity is a root cause of SGBV, and how social scripts dictate all of our behaviour. This year’s launch event symbolised the theme through the wearing of masks over the whole face, and also though glasses cleaners with feminist slogans on them, symbolising clearing your vision to witness how the patriarchy causes SGBV and other harm towards women.

The 16 Days campaign takes places across various Arab cities and towns in Israel, and was carried out in compliance with Covid-19 restrictions. The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has unfortunately continued to amplify SGBV against Arab Palestinian women. The campaign involves collective action, one of the keys to making our voices heard. These actions include marches, workshops involving women and men, discussion groups, art activities, and youth workshops in community centres and schools, among other things. We have also been publishing information and photos on social media, including feminist infographics challenging patriarchal norms such as SGBV, and the focus on marriage as a measure of women’s worth.

All of this comes alongside Kayan’s ongoing work to combat the phenomenon of femicide of Arab Palestinian women in Israel. The Israeli Ministry of Justice recently released information about 18 femicide cases involving 17 women; this was a direct result of Kayan’s Freedom of Information request and pressure we applied to the Israeli police to release this information. We do this for the sake of transparency and accountability in the legal system. The information revealed that these cases involved very few indictments and that plea bargains lowering the severity of the charges were cut between the perpetrator and the police. Kayan also continues to publish the image, name and story of each Palestinian victim of femicide in Israel. This is to show respect to those victims and to put the issue on the public agenda in a way which cannot be ignored.

We want to thank you again for your generous support. Your giving allows all this work to happen.

Gratefully,

Kayan’s Team