Kayan – Palestinian women’s needs
Palestinian women in Israel have the lowest education and the highest unemployment and have almost no voice in politics. Women and girls are controlled in daily life by their families. The men now again see nothing wrong with girls leaving school early, marrying when young and being threatened with violence by male family members “to protect the family’s honor.” The Israeli government and also local Palestinian authorities are not interested in the needs of Palestinian women and girls. The organization Kayan develops new projects together with women and girls, gives important help for people to be able to talk about feminist ideas and is very active in the new Arab women’s movement in Israel.
Empowerment groups
Kayan’s main activity is empowerment groups for women and girls in villages in northern Israel. Here they talk about things important to each group like marriage, sexuality, social hopes and limits, education, jobs and the law. This gives them information and strength. After this, the women are encouraged to work together with confidence to make local decision makers take notice of their rights and needs.
Support for local women’s projects
Kayan also helps women to develop the activities and projects which often come from the empowerment groups. In a village in Galilee, a women’s group began a bus project that made them independent from the men. The women wanted to be able to go to school, start a job or go to the market in a village nearby without a man going with them. A bus only for women made it possible for their men relatives to give up their control over women and girls, at least in this situation. In another village, a group of child-care women were able - with the help of Kayan – to get the correct pay from the local authorities. After this several hundred child-care women in the whole country are being helped by Kayan to start a professional child-care organization.
Feminist activities and policies
In courses and workshops for schools, universities, social services and authorities, women members of Kayan help people see where there is discrimination against women and show them how things can be changed. Kayan uses both ideas and projects and uses what it has learnt in the empowerment groups in the villages to influence politicians. In this way, Kayan, together with other organizations, has been able to make family law fairer. The organization is now going to use the law of compulsory schooling for all children to fix the problem of girls leaving school early. However, Kayan must also think about what the community will possibly think and do about this. Kayan works closely with Jewish women’s organizations to make feminist and peace policies on a national level.
