"Dorek": Palestinian women's political renaissance

Women’s public and prominent role in the political and publics spheres have been central to our work since our founding in 1998. Leading up to the 2018 local elections, we decided to take our groundbreaking approach into the field of local politics. For the first time in Arab society, many women have access to the training and tools necessary to be active in campaigns and councils.

This project is critical because women only hold 0.12% of council seats in Palestinian municipalities. Women must hold positions of power in local government in order to increase women’s status and society’s overall wellbeing by influencing education budgets, healthcare policies, transportation plans, and many other decisions. Current office holders are often men beholden to family and religious interests. We are building a groundbreaking base of women leaders who are independent and ready to bring Arab society in Israel into a vibrant and egalitarian political future.

We decided to address problem on multiple levels: both nationally and locally, both preparing women to run and preparing society to accept their candidacy. On the local level, Kayan worked with four women’s groups to provide them with the skills to campaign. In three of these towns, women from the groups started their own political lists or, in one case, joined another political party. In the town of Ossifiya, this was the first successful all-women political party list in Palestinian society in Israel. Kayan also supported these women to change the culture around women’s participation in politics by planning and implementing public information campaigns, including videos.

On the national level, grassroots women’s assembly, the Jusur Forum, supported the effort with a campaign called, “Dorek,” the Arabic term meaning “your turn.” This campaign showed the faces of women political leaders, which changed the discourse around women’s role in elections by showing them as visible parts of the political world. It encouraged other grassroots women to step up and take “their turn” in the political sphere. A Jusur Forum leader, reflecting on their success, called it, a women’s "political renaissance.”

Two women were elected to local council from groups to whom Kayan offered support: Ayesha in Arabeh and Samira in Ossifiyeh. In both cases, women from their groups mobilized behind them. Samira is already looking at how to use her position to increase the participation of women on local committees.

With the momentum that we built, it is essential that we continue to work towards changing culture. We are going to hold workshops to continue building women’s political skills. We are supporting the women in local councils and are intending to build a national forum of women councilors to offer mutual support, as many women councilors feel isolated and unsupported. We will continue media and social media campaigns that raise women’s voices in politics. We thank you for joining us as we enter this exciting phase of our work on supporting women in politics.

Links:

• Social change campaign video created by grassroots women
• Social change campaign video created by grassroots women
• Social change campaign video created by grassroots women

Since August 2018, Kayan has continued our project and efforts to end violence against women. This gender-based violence manifests in many forms for Palestinian women living in Israel. Most recently, the issue of femicide and the killing of women throughout Israel has come to the forefront of discussion. The perpetrators are rarely brought to justice by the State and women who seek aid from the police are routinely turned away. In general, State violence against Palestinian women can be defined by "neglect," which spawns a culture of impunity in which rights violations against Palestinian women are commonplace in all spheres of life. 

For Palestinian women in Israel, violence takes many forms that include physical, sexual, legal, economic, social, and political. In recent years, the media has emerged as a new space in which violence occurs in the form of threats, sexual harassment, shaming, and slander, and is actually one of the most common forums for violence against women. 

This project includes changing the norms in the media and practices related to violence against women through many strategies, one of which includes targeting men and youth in workshops and activities related to this phenomenon, and enlisting their support in the movement to end gender-based violence. Much of our work has entailed direct partnerships between women and youth activists as well as women-led youth activities. By working with and targeting youth, we are preparing the next generation of youth activists, and laying the foundation for a just and secure future for Arab women.

Accomplishments in the past months include a widely publicised Jusur Forum-led annual 16 Days of Activism to End Gender Based Violence Campaign which included media, meetings, and more than 20 workshops and activities in the field that reached thousands of students and women in the communities. This year, we have focused on sexual harrassment prevention.

In addition, Kayan staff participated in and supported the December 4th strike to promote awareness of the increasing violence against women in Israel, and the refusal of the State to intervene. Kayan has also been campaigning consistently on social media, because as previously mentioned, media is emerging as one of the most common spaces for violence against women to occur. We have also created and disemminated automobile air fresheners that include Kayan's logo and the 16 Days of Activism slogan. In the coming year we are beginning a new project which will feature a traveling art gallery with installations on the subject of gender-based violence. 

By working on these levels of awareness, advocacy, and education, Kayan and grassroots women leaders are making progressive changes toward women's security in the Arab society in Israel.