Ramallah – The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) held an exchange visit for West Bank shadow council coordinators (Jenin, Tulkarim, Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Salfit), which introduced the shadow councils formed in new locations.
PWWSD Program Coordinator, Dr. Reham Alhelsi opened the session by praising the courageous shadow council women, for their continued support of each other and the organization. Alhelsi noted the leading role of Palestinian women in challenging the status quo, emphasizing women’s right to participating in political life, as the main tool of progressing and elevating women’s status in Palestinian society. She added that experience exchange visits serve to benefit all participants from the experiences faced and lessons learned, which can support women in lobbying and advocating for their equal rights.
Alhelsi mentioned that PWWSD has formed 20 new shadow councils so far this year, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with support from the Centre Party International Foundation CIS in Sweden, Kvinna Till Kvinna (KTK), and the Theodor-Springmann Foundation (TSF). It is worth noting that PWWSD has formed 50 shadow councils since 2011, and as an outcome a larger number of women have ran in elections or expressed their willingness to do so.
PWWSD Director General, Ms. Amal Khreisheh talked about women’s leading role in Palestinian society, which the entire feminist movement and all Palestinian women have fought for, to prove women’s capability and right to political participation. These efforts have culminated in the Palestinian legislative council instituting a quota for women. Khreisheh emphasized the need to utilize the quota system, and to work on increasing women’s participation to at least the 50% rate they deserve. She commended the leading work of shadow council women in their locations, which was crowned by the Manara Award as a leading example created by PWWSD for encouraging and strengthening Palestinian women’s political participation.
The visit aimed at exchanging the experiences faced by shadow council women, as lessons for new shadow councils to learn from. Some situations experienced by shadow council women were presented, such as their experience with local councils and exclusion from their evening meetings, as they caused disruption in the local community for the women involved. As well as local councilwomen resigning and being replaced by men, breaking the regulations of women’s quota as stated in local election law. Most concerning perhaps, is the exclusion of women from all interim caretaker committees following the resignation of 66 local councils. Joint activities were organized to protest this unlawful behavior and blatant disrespect of the policies seeking to strengthen women’s participation as citizens. Activities included protest memos, issuing statements in local press, and holding protest meetings with relevant bodies. The main lesson learned from this experience was the significance of joint action and women’s awareness of their rights in local government. The session addressed another lesson: the importance of working with political parties from the moment they form their electoral lists, negotiating the position of women on those lists, and forming women-friendly committees of both women and men. The event carefully deliberated the formation of electoral lists by shadow council women, based on a past experience where 2 electoral lists of only women were registered in the 2012 elections, in Hebron led by Maysoon Qawasmi, and in Safa village led by Elham Sami. PWWSD had adopted both lists in technical support and capacity building, as well as contributing to covering the electoral campaign expenses. The meeting reached an agreement on the need to form women-led lists of both women and men. The session also addressed the experience of shadow council women supporting local councilwomen if they decide to resign, which happened in Deir As-Sudan village, where a councilwoman retracted her resignation following continuous support, through activities and follow-up efforts by the village’s shadow council. The meeting then discussed the importance of shadowing community leaders and councilmembers, as was implemented in several locations. For example in Beitunia, women noted that playing the role of a council chairperson even for 2 weeks, had helped increase their confidence and turned the shadowing trainees into a reference for the city. There was consensus on the need to broaden and deepen young women’s involvement in shadow councils, the need to work with the media, and the importance of building shadow council women’s capacities in interviewing and discussion skills in the media.
Shadow council women were surveyed on their willingness to run in the coming elections to be held October 8, and 22 women showed intent to run. They also expressed their determination and faith in their capability and right to hold public office. However, some participants showed their concern over family-bias taking over the candidacy process, but they made a decision to organize lobbying meetings with decision makers, in order to guarantee that they experience fair and meaningful elections and not to simply fill a quota.
