Arab women seek more influential role in their community

Representatives of various Arab organizations are to convene in Nazareth today to discuss including women in the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee. The committee, an umbrella organization of Israeli Arab political and non-partisan groups, is the most senior elected body of the Arab community in Israel. It consists of local authority leaders, party representatives and Arab MKs; but since its foundation in 1976, it has not included any women.

"It's not a matter of need, but a matter of right. Women have a right to be part of the decision-making process on issues regarding their life, because we live life differently - not uniquely, but differently," says Aida Aida Toumeh-Suleiman, director of Women Against Violence Organization (WAVO).

"No, we're not geniuses who bring ideas nobody else thinks of. But why do we have to fight to prove ourselves?" she continues. "We're 50 percent of society, if not 52 percent, and it is unacceptable that we should not be members of the institutions representing Arab society."

Toumeh suggests reorganizing the committee so that each organization or group has two representatives, one of whom is a woman. "Our goal is to have women sit around this table, and without making this a condition, it won't happen," she says.

Committee chairman Shawki Khatib agreed in principle to this idea. Committee spokesman Abed Inbitawi says it is up to the parties to decide about the women's representation. "We are waiting for the party leaders to settle the issue and then we will bring it to a vote," he says.

Toumeh says that the Islamic Movement's northern branch objects to expanding the representation in the monitoring committee. "This would destroy what we have achieved in meetings in two years. But if a party wants a woman to represent it, it's their own business and we'll respect it," the Islamic Movement's political bureau wrote in a letter to Khatib last month.

Despite the improvement in the status of Israeli women over the past 15 years, their condition is still far from satisfactory. "In the Arab society, the situation is even worse. The legal basis for Jewish and Arab women is the same, but in the patriarchal Arab society women are even weaker," Toumeh says.

Toumeh is said to be considering running for a slot on Hadash's Knesset list. She refuses to comment on these rumors, but such a move would reflect the growing demand to increase women's partisan and parliamentary representation.

In Israel's 57 years of existence, the only Arab woman to serve in the Knesset was Hussniya Jabara, who was elected on Meretz's list. She was harshly criticized for her work and some say it was because she was a woman.

In recent years, the trend seems to be changing. Arab women are central activists in students' unions and serve in key positions in organizations such as Aalem, Adallah and Musawa.

"Sometimes they say we are not loyal to the Arab public because we are trying to instill ideas opposed to tradition, and the only way to preserve the Arab minority is by preserving tradition. I think the opposite is true," says Toumeh.

	Aida Toumeh-Suleiman. "Why do we have to fight to prove ourselves?"
	Photo by: Yaron Kaminsky