Gender Equality Israel Project #18766

Jusur Expanding Arab Women's Spheres of Influence

by Kayan - Feminist Organization

Jusur Expanding Arab Women's Spheres of Influence

Project Report | Mar 16, 2015
Jusur's network meeting - January 2015

By khulud khamis | development and outreach coordinator

Project Summary

Kayan helps to mobilize Arab women as social change agents and community leaders and activists through long-term investment in the development of women’s leadership at the grassroots. Support of grassroots community organizing in Arab villages has emerged as a cornerstone of Kayan’s work, a tool that empowers women to overcome imbalances and to improve their lives in tangible ways. Working through bottoms up approach, the program begins with intensive personal empowerment, working up to political empowerment, which leads to community engagement and local leadership. Becoming local leaders will pave the path for program participants to integrate into decision-making processes first on the local level and, ultimately, on the national level. The program also connects women from isolated villages through our Jusur Women Leaders Forum, enabling networking, exchange of experiences, learning from one another, leading joint actions, and consolidating common national agenda and goals.

Vision: Kayan envisions a secure and just society free of gender-based discrimination, in which Arab Palestinian women in Israel enjoy full and equitable opportunities for self-actualization, and take a leading and active part in society through realizing their individual and collective rights.

Mission: Kayan strives towards consolidating an active, systematic, nationwide Arab Palestinian feminist movement that actively effects social change through contesting the root causes of gender-based discrimination, defending and promoting the rights of women, and ensuring their integration in decision-making positions in general.

Jusur (Bridges) – National Forum of Arab Women Leaders

Grassroots community activism is integral to Kayan’s vision of social change, empowering women to overcome imbalances and improve their lives in tangible ways. Our core methodology, Jusur (Bridges) – National Forum of Arab Women Leaders, provides a crucial framework that ensures the sustainability of community-based initiatives for social change. This national forum consists of about 45 women community leaders from approximately 20 villages where Kayan works. Jusur members meet on a quarterly basis, and once a year participate in a two-day retreat. During these meetings, the women exchange experiences about critical issues pertaining to their lives, discuss priorities of their activism, tools and methods, working relationships, barriers to success and effective partnerships with other non-governmental organizations and public authorities. In 2015, the thematic focus of the Forum’s work is violence against women, gender-based killing of women, and participation of women in local politics. Kayan has invested considerable efforts in expanding the forum in order to ensure a sustainable framework that creates long-term, tangible results. It is important to note that this model is unique and it is the only forum of such scope in Israel, bringing together women from marginalized and disenfranchised villages, where they remain isolated from other groups of women and from the public sphere, giving them the sense of belonging, solidarity, and strength.

Activity progress report

We began 2015 with a network meeting, held at the village of Kaukab Abu El Heja in the North of Israel on 26 January. This meeting focused on two main themes: women’s health and violence against women.

The first part of the network meeting was titled "The Sustainable Leadership for Women’s Health” Program. Kayan’s community organizer opened with a short presentation of the program, the issues it deals with, and some of the recent achievements. Representatives of three local women’s groups from the villages of Deir Hanna, Sulam, and Yaffit Al-Nasrah then each shared their group’s work and achievements on the local level. Group work on the topic of health followed in the form of workshops. The workshops focused on the following: suggestions for expanding the health program to additional villages; what are the health needs in different villages and how can the health program be expanded so that additional villages can benefit from the experiences of the villages that are already working on the issue and, what is the role of the Jusur Forum in contributing to the development and expansion of the Health Program. Within each of these workshops women brought up issues, and proposed solutions and ideas relating to the topics of the workshops. Some ideas proposed by the women included organizing national health conferences, planning a public health day in the villages in which all families can undergo specific preventative exams on the same day and in coordination with local HMOs, and recruiting Knesset members and health ministry officials to promote health programs.

The second part of the network meeting was on the theme of battling violence against women. The workshop in this section was titled What Can I do and Where Can I go? Our Role as Women Leaders in the Jusur Forum. The workshop included definitions of violence, and participants gave their own interpretations of the term. Then, under the guidance of Kayan’s Community Organizers, the women brainstormed on the topic of violence. They examined the varied manifestations of violence. They did a simulation of a specific case of a battered woman that lead to a discussion of how they would respond if approached by the battered woman for assistance. Some conclusions generated by the women included: violence does not cease at a certain age or in certain generations, and it is critical to deal with abusers and not only focus on victims since this can perpetuate abuse. This part of the network meeting concluded with the decision to hold a national event on violence against women,

These two themes are among the central themes the Jusur Forum has been focusing on in 2014, and they will expand their work on them in 2015. Together, Kayan and Jusur are planning national activities on both these issues this year in order to put them on the public agenda and promote the health status of Palestinian women in Israel and eradicate the phenomenon of women’s murder.

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Dec 23, 2014
Jusur (Bridges) Annual Conference

By Khulud Khamis | Development and Outreach Coordinator

On 5 November, Kayan Feminist Organization and Jusur (Bridges) – National Forum of Arab Women Leaders held the fifth Jusur Annual Conference in Arraba, at the Mahmoud Darwish Cultural Center. The conference was attended by approx. 250 Arab women from different geographical areas, most of whom are active on the community level. The theme of the conference this year was participation of women in local politics. Issues presented and discussed during the conference included: the factors that affect the ways and forms of women's participation in politics; analysis and evaluation of the present situation from a feminist perspective, as well as from the women's perspectives; future aspirations, challenges and difficulties; factors that can facilitate the increase of women's participation; and the tools needed to develop for their active participation in public life.

The Jusur National Forum of Arab Women Leaders represents a grassroots network of locally active women, including more than 40 women from approx. 20 Arab villages, working as part of and in full cooperation with Kayan since its establishment in 2009. The Jusur Forum aims at strengthening and supporting local women's work, in order to develop and leverage it at the national level.

Opening remarks at the conference were made by Jusur Forum member Haifa Ghattas, who spoke about the goals of the event and of its importance. Haifa highlighted that the conference aimed to continue to raise the issue of women's political participation and to place it on the public agenda—not only in relation to elections. She stressed that there is a need for continuous and intensive work on all levels to effect real and sustainable change and increase the participation of women in local politics. She added that such change would require unrelenting effort at all levels, and that the conference exemplified such efforts on the part of Kayan. Haifa explained that the conference was preceded by countless panels and workshops raising women's awareness about the importance of their active participation in order to raise their status in society and challenge patriarchal notions that have contributed to their marginalization, to discrimination against them, and limited women's opportunities for advancing in various spheres of life.

Anwar Mansour, Community Organizer at Kayan followed with welcoming remarks, thanking the women leaders and activists for attending, and thanking the local Arraba women’s group Atiaf, the local council, and the Mahmoud Darwish Cultural Center for their ongoing support and cooperation in everything related to improving women’s status in Arraba. “We at Kayan and Jusur Forum,” explained Anwar, “put two major themes to work on intensively during the upcoming years. The first one is representation of women in decision-making processes and public life in general, and the second is fighting the killing of women and violence against women. What distinguishes our efforts is our community-based nature which can address women from their perspective and address their real needs."

Speaking on a related note about the importance of responsiveness to community voices, Rooz Khutaba, member of the Jusur Forum and of the Atiaf local women’s group, said that "One of the most important reasons behind the successful women's activism occurring in Arraba has been the fact that the needs of many different women are taken into account when developing a work plan. What distinguishes Kayan's efforts is their continuous connection with the field and their insistence on supporting and empowering women of all backgrounds and in all spheres. This has contributed to increasing women’s involvement in Arraba in decision-making positions and influencing decision-makers.”

A lecture on “Gender Politics and Gender in Politics in the Context of the Palestinian Society in Israel” was subsequently presented by Professor Khawla Abu Baker, a lecturer at the Al Qasemi Academic College of Education and the Yezreel Valley College. Prof. Abu Baker presented the findings of a research on women’s representation in politics, stressing that the implicit gender policies in fact prevent women from achieving equality. She explained that society continues to address the issue of women's political participation in the same manner it always has that has excluded women. Thus, the need is to work on changing the restricting norms and changing discourse. This work needs to be done simultaneously both on the individual and the community levels. This dual approach is the right direction towards change.

The second part of the conference consisted of a discussion panel led by Kayan’s Community Organizer Hanan Khatib on “The Experiences of Women Leaders: Between Dream and Reality.” The women who participated in the panel were Areen Abdi Zoabi, a member of Haifa municipality; Tamam Shalash, a former member of the Arraba local council; and Rina Hindawi, a former candidate for the Majd El Krum local council. One of the most important aspects the panel participants discussed was the importance of women’s empowerment and their belief in women's abilities along with their readiness to pay certain prices as basic conditions for succeeding in this experience. The participants further stressed that the challenges are numerous. A contributing factor being the patriarchal society which still poses limits on women and does not genuinely believe in the necessity of women’s participation in political life or in women’s abilities to take up these public roles.

The final portion of the conference involved six workshops that addressed three central themes: the readiness of society to accept women in local politics, factors that support women's engagement in decision-making roles, and the implications of the presence of women in local politics.

Some key conclusions made during the workshops regarding steps needed to promote women's status included: the importance of efforts to prepare society to be more accepting of the presence of women in local politics and decision-making positions; the importance of empowering women to believe in themselves and their abilities while also being aware of their specific needs and being prepared to overcome barriers of fear; and the importance of the media in highlighting politically active women while having a media stance based on equality that is also a component of a regular agenda that can influence policy both at the local and national level. Key conclusions of the conference emphasized the importance of women's participation in the local public sphere and national political arena in particular, whereas, under current circumstances, women cannot achieve real progress on the backdrop of policies that marginalize them, exclude them from public life and restrict them to the private sphere.

While women do in fact participate in public life, they are excluded from decision-making positions, which to date remain nearly exclusively male. Today not a single Arab woman holds a position of local council head. Kayan cooperates with the Jusur National Forum in order to raise social awareness about this topic in order to achieve a tangible change that will guarantee women's political participation.

For the full photo album of the conference, please visit https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.735106686558437.1073741839.661952743873832&type=3

Translation from Arabic: Tova Reznicek and Khulud Khamis

Editing: Annette McCabe

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