"Dorek": Palestinian women's political renaissance

Kayan is continuing to support grassroots women who have gotten involved and are trying to get involved in politics and decision-making processes. We are in the process of starting the documentation of the experiences of women councilors. We have begun laying out the methodology and are holding meetings to start the full process. Look out for more emails from us to learn more about this project.

We have also started bringing ideas about women’s political participation to schools. During the campaign we held workshops at 8 different schools and institutions in multiple Arab localities. The students were excited and engaged in the discussions, giving us hope for that the next generation will choose to put women who care about their communities in leadership positions.

Also, the past few months at Kayan have been very eventful! We recently wrapped up an extremely intensive 16 Day Campaign of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. During the campaign we held over two dozen events and led a coalition of 15 Palestinian human rights and feminist NGOs. All of the events gave grassroots women a chance to lead. Several events held during the campaign gave us a chance to highlight women’s participation in politics.

During one particular event, Samira Azzam, Kayan activist and the first woman ever elected as a member of the Ossifiya local council, shared her story to a room packed with feminist activists and diplomats at the Swiss Ambassador’s residence. She shared her story of starting with her first engagement in a local Kayan group to her leading the first Palestinian women’s political list in Israel to victory in Ossifiya council elections. Samira emphasized that she couldn’t do it without Kayan and that “Supporting women means supporting women’s groups.” Her testimony to women’s leadership was extremely powerful.

The event at the Swiss Embassy also provided Palestinian women leaders the opportunity to engage with diplomatic leaders and share their communities’ concerns with them.

Thank you for being a friend and supporter of Kayan Feminist Organization. Please consider supporting Kayan today. Your support is especially appreciated as we work towards our end of year targets. Your donations help build a stronger, more feminist, more egalitarian, and more community-focused Palestinian leadership.

Kayan staff has been reviewing and reflecting on our past experience of promoting women in politics and are getting ready to launch our next phase. We completed an external evaluation of the first phase of the project. The evaluation found that the project had a “very good” impact. It found that the project succeeded in, “changing the discourse regarding women participation in politics, challenging men political hegemony, and allowing a new discourse to flourish,” and also stated that, “The project had changed the attitudes and beliefs of women involved towards the way they perceive themselves in politics and their role within the council.” The evaluation confirms, from an outside perspective, that this project was successful in creating real change.

The evaluation and the reflection on the project also helped us to identify the next steps for the project. The next stage has two major components: supporting women to be effective leaders in the council and training youth to challenge social norms about women’s leadership.

We believe that it is important to work with youth because they are the next voters and are the most likely to be able to change their perspectives by challenging social norms. The evaluator also pointed out that youth are also harmed by the local councils’ incompetence and suggested that we pursue working with youth as a next step. Kayan staff is currently working to develop a curriculum to bring to schools in order to change student perspectives.

We continue to provide support to women who are serving on councils and those around them. We noticed in the first part of our project, however, that we did not always have all the right information in order to support the women. We found ourselves asking questions like, “what makes a successful woman candidate?” and “How can we support women through the unique challenges they face on local council?” We are starting to learn how to answer these questions by studying and documenting the experiences of current women councilors. We are starting a process of research planning, interviews, and writing. This project will be focused forward towards supporting women to be in the strongest possible position as local councilors and to advise women who are interested in becoming candidates.

We are also starting to partner with other Arab organizations that are working on women’s involvement in politics. We are sharing our experiences and resources so that we can all work together to support these women and build strong, independent leadership for a healthier Palestinian society.

If you share our excitement about these next steps, consider increasing your support for Kayan. Together, we can build a stronger Palestinian society based on a vibrant and diverse grassroots advocacy. Stand with us to realize this future.