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| back ASWAT's Activities Update ASWAT's website project is part of a larger program entitled: "Information and Publication Program." This program aims to gather and disseminate information on lesbianism from a feminist, queer and multicultural standpoint. To this end, ASWAT strives to make the information one of its vehicles for social change. The information is designated to serve Palestinian gay women and the general Palestinian community consisting of service providers, students and education professionals, social change groups and organizations (both Arab and Jewish) and interested individuals and groups. The program, designed and applied by Palestinian gay women, was established during the second half of 2005 (though some of its activities have already been carried out as part of ASWAT's ongoing work). While developing a long term strategy, one of the first and most urgent needs defined by the ASWAT group was an informative and high standard website to serve ASWAT's members and target groups, and its advocacy, outreach and education work. It does this by promoting our exposure and by increasing the accessibility to our vision, values and subversive information. The website project, which started in August 2005 and ended at the end of November 2005, was coordinated by Alex (nickname), one of ASWAT's group members and a veteran social activist and an experienced translator and editor (Arabic to English). The website project allowed ASWAT, for the first time since its inception, to move towards a programmatic implementation. In addition, it allowed us to:
ASWAT's Advocacy and Outreach Women in Black International Conference held in Jerusalem, on August 2005, where Palestinian gay women’s issues got a great deal of attention, and we subsequently won a number of allies from Israeli, Palestinian, and international communities alike. During this conference, our Palestinian sisters in struggle for peace and gender equality urged the organizers of the conference to cancel a workshop facilitated by ASWAT. This is a demand we know only too well and which we, as part of Palestinian society, understand and even can sympathize with. This situation, where Palestinian gay women are asked to silence their needs and struggle in the service of a greater cause and more important agenda (and we are not denying the grave violations of human rights daily practiced against Palestinian in the Occupied Territories and Israel including towards ourselves!) allowed us to deal with the homophobia and lesbophobia practiced by Palestinian feminist groups. It also allowed us to explore ways to deal with this reality by working to include women's sexuality and to introduce queer politics to local and regional social change. By forming coalitions with other partners in the Arab world and in the Arab cultural context, partners who face similar challenges, we believe we can change the situation and influence our local partners to recognize the importance of our vision to women cause. This incentive, together with the generous support of Astraea Foundation and Urgent Action Fund, has allowed us to develop a proactive plan by taking the initial steps towards the creation of regional lesbian/gay networking and cooperation, to be executed first with Helem - a non-profit organization based in Lebanon and working to annul article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code which punishes "unnatural sexual intercourse", and then with other LGBTQI in the region. AWID International Conference held in Bangkok, where we participated in workshops about gender and sexuality issues, entitled:
In addition, we participated in the Women Human Rights Defenders conference in Sri Lanka, and continued to hold workshops, give lectures, publish articles, and give interviews on television and radio programs. Our meetings and our online forum grew in size, as more and more Palestinian gay women realized that they were not alone, and got the courage to join our support network. We managed to bring the issues of Palestinian gay women, which have been silenced previously, into the light, both in Israel and internationally, while serving as a resource, forum, and support group for Palestinian gay women throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories. Finally, ASWAT was nominated, together with other 6 international women's groups by Mama Cash Foundation as a candidate for the "she changes the world" award, which "recognizes courageous and groundbreaking women’s groups that fight for women’s rights in order to improve the status of women in their countries". We feel that this is an enormous step in terms of recognition and visibility, and are grateful for this vote of confidence in our work. We will appreciate your support: Checks may be sent by mail to ASWAT- Kayan or through bank transfer to Donor advised tax deducible donation can be made via: US/Israel Women to Women- 45 West 36th St., New York NY 10018 ASWAT- Palestinian Gay Women |
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