Itach-Maaki: Women Legal Leaders

Women Legal Leaders, a joint project of Itach-Maaki and Haifa University’s Faculty of Law, fosters the abilities of Israeli women from Arab and Jewish marginalized communities, together with Arab and Jewish law students, to become social change activists on issues close to their hearts.

A forum for facilitating a joint vision for justice in a shared society, Women Legal Leaders brings together women from diverse Arab and Jewish communities in the North to overcome obstacles and to create solidarity for integrative work to advance their visions for a more just shared society.   A social change incubator, the project provides the knowledge, resources, support and constant guidance that are needed for women to develop their own social change initiatives to promote the rights of women from their communities and in the general society.  The project is co-facilitated by an Arab woman lawyer and a Jewish woman lawyer, and supervised by a group facilitator.    

Past initiatives have included advocating for healthcare for wheelchair-bound women, increasing access to civil family courts for Arab women, increasing representation of Arab and Jewish women in the municipality of Haifa, and advancing rights for divorced or divorcing Druze women.  Strategies for creating change include advocacy vis-à-vis public bodies; awareness-raising in communities; media exposure; networking with community leaders; creating advocacy documents; field research and much more.  Each new cycle of the project brings new ideas and new issues to be tackled, often for the first time in the public sphere.

Through the creation and implementation of these initiatives, significant and long term change is fostered by women who have been historically excluded from determining priorities on community, regional and national levels. Entire communities are impacted by this program, advancing equality and justice in our shared society.