“My time at Givat Haviva completely opened my eyes to so many things. It taught me about my own place as a woman in my own Arab society – in fact it has really changed my life” enthuses Rula as she sits in her apartment in her home town of Faradis in Wadi Ara. She along with many other Arab women say the same thing. Givat Haviva’s courses have given them a new outlook on life as a woman and have spurred them into spreading the good news

 

Givat Haviva has spent the last 50 years educating for peace, democracy, coexistence and social solidarity and to foster greater understanding between different groups in Israeli society. The Noa/Nuha Centre for Women studies part of Givat Haviva trains women, mostly social workers or other mental health professionals, in a diverse range of courses including Empowerment of Women, Women as Facilitators, Women in Business and Women in Community. 

 

Rula herself comes from a progressive Arab family and after graduating in social work from Jerusalem University she went on to work in the field for a couple of years before enrolling at the Noa/Nuha Centre for women studies.” I enrolled on the Women in Community course one week before I got married…. and little did I know how much it would change my view on myself as a woman” she laughs “The course even changed my relationship with my husband too– for the better!”

 

Rula has a supportive husband but even for her it was difficult to convince many close to her at the start “. My husband,……, did have difficulties accepting the changes in me at first. He is a traditional Arab male and with that comes some deeply embedded views about the role of women in the family. But now he sees how much happier I am and accepts this as a positive thing” In fact he now juggles running the family bakery downstairs from their apartment in Faradis with his own studies in a post graduate in Counselling at…….

 

Other family members either resented or felt hostile to this new type of emancipation that Rula kept talking about. “There is no doubt that in Arab families the power is loaded in the man’s favour. There are normally group family bank accounts with little access for female family members but what surprised me was the jealousy from other female family members who felt a woman with a career, husband and 3 kids was not acceptable in our society”

 

The course itself consists of one afternoon tuition each week for 2 years and covers issues from gender stereotyping, religion, sex and society “I am religious and wanted to find how to reconcile my religious belief with the quest for my own empowerment as an Arab woman.  I had always thought the role of women in Islam was from our texts but this way of life had just evolved and does not stem from our religion at all.”  She researched into the Koran and found an alternative truth regarding women which resolved any uncertainty about taking control as a woman

 

Rula and her husband

 

She was also fascinated about the role of women and sexuality. “I did actually pry into everyone’s sexlives in my own town. I wanted for us to talk more openly about sex” In the Arab culture there is a strong connection between religion and sex and sex is often considered a taboo subject. “I was especially amused and surprised to find in Islamic texts that husbands are under obligation to be understanding and sensitive to women’s needs and should be nurturing and loving! I pull that one out of the bag at times now!” she smiles

 

Rula enjoyed the Women in Community course so much that she went on to enrol in another course at the NOa/Nuha Centre, Women as Facilitators, which catered for mental health professionals working daily with women’ groups. “It was a mixed group but we were all from same backgrounds educationally so had a different dynamic to my first course where it was a real mixed bag”

 

When asked about the difficulties of Jews and Arab mixed groups she did admit that at times it can be difficult “Naturally sometimes in a mixed class we couldn’t get over the political situation between Jews and Arabs – one Arab lady quit the course after her coffee shop was blown up. I can understand that” In the Women in Community course some time was given to explaining each others religions and customs “We had to get over our own stereotypes of the other side. Too many people judged scarfed Arab women as non progressive which is so inaccurate. In fact in our class it was the opposite – there was a modern dressed Arab woman who proved to be far less open minded than the scarfed Arab woman. It isn’t learning it is knowing each other that makes the difference.”

 

These courses gave Rula the tools she felt she needed to empower women in her own community.  She now runs 3 new groups in her community.  She works on body image with a crippled women’s group, helps mothers with children at high risk as well as young women who are in the high risk category too. “At university the emphasis was on the individual but at the Noa/Nuha centre we focussed on the community and the group and this extra knowledge has been invaluable to my work”

 

Rula and her husband outside their bakery in Faradis

 

Rula was diagnosed with tumours on the lymph gland earlier this year but feels the skills she learnt  at Givat Haviva has made her far more able to cope “I feel much stronger and in control and I am able to deal with this treatment better. I really believe that the women’s empowerment courses have given me a new outlook on life”

 

She admits that it was the courses she took at Givat Haviva that opened so many doors for her and she now aims to open doors for others too “It cannot be a revolution but slowly this feeling of empowerment will spread wider and wider and this new and exciting life that has opened up for me will be accessible to more and more people. This is the goal”

 

As for her own future she has a vision “It would be a dream if my husband and I opened an office together consulting and forming supportive groups empowering women. It is a dream that will come sooner than anyone can imagine”