2016 opens with new projects for Arab women empowerment
2016 opens with new projects for Arab women empowerment
Over the past few weeks, a number of different projects for training and empowerment of Arab women have been launched by civil society organizations in Israel.
Arab women are recognized today by the Israeli government, academia and civil society, as one of the weakest groups in Israeli society in terms of access to higher education, employment rates, public sector participation and equal opportunities more generally. In recent years great efforts are being made by government, civil society and local leaders to address barriers that keep Arab women from better integrating into the Israeli society. By 2020, the Israeli government aims to reach 42% employment for Arab women, compared to 27% today.
Several Civil Society organizations that made Arab women empowerment a focus of their work launched new programs that addresses these barriers for 2016:
Mahapach-Taghir
Mahapach-Taghir, a Jewish-Arab feminist organization, launched their "Second Opportunity Program" in the Arab village of Tamra. The program aims to empower Jewish Mizrahi women and Arab women living in Israel's periphery by advancing their access to higher education and employment, as well as develop their capacities to advocate effectively for social change.
32 Arab women from Tamra started their academic studies this year at the Open University as part of the "Second Opportunity Program". Tamra's municipality gave its blessing to this program, and with the guidance of Mahapach-Taghir's negotiated scholarships and tuition discounts for the women.
The Arab-Jewish Community Center (AJCC)
The Arab-Jewish Community Center in Jaffa is a non-profit community center catering exclusively to community empowerment and tolerance building between Jews, Muslims and Christians. Recently, the center launched a new Women’s Club for women from Jaffa who are 50 years old and older – targeting Jewish and Arab, religious and secular women alike. The club offers at a symbolic price programs such as wellness classes including yoga and health lectures; child rearing advice; language courses; educational field trips throughout the country and an open forum for socializing and networking.
TAFI's Conference on Arab Women Leadership
On Jan. 14th, the Abraham Fund Initiatives (TAFI), a Jewish-Arab organization working to advance equality and shared society in Israel, held a conference titled "Gender, Education, and Public Leadership" at Haifa University. The Conference marked the graduation of the 9th cohort of the Arab Women Leadership Course, a collaboration of TAFI and Na'amat women movement, and was run by the program's graduates themselves.
The Program's 9th cohort was consisted of twenty-two Arab women from Israel's Galilee and Golan Heights regions and included Druze, Muslim, and Christian women. MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Join List), chair of the Knesset Committee on Gender Equality, concluded the conference by encouraging the program’s participants and other attendees to become “decision makers so that they can define what equality [in the public sphere] means”.