#005 FiLiA Meets CADFA Part 2
Lisa-Marie: Welcome to the FiLiA podcasts. We are the daughters of those women who came before us. It is our absolute honour to have met so many incredible women fighting for the liberation of us all. Our role at FiLiA is to amplify the voices of those women via the FiLiA conference and these podcasts. Please take from them what you can in sisterhood and in solidarity. The FiLiA team.
Heather: My name is Heather and I'm part of a women's rights charity called FiLiA. And what FiLiA does is it likes to hear and promote voices from women in different parts of the world to hear about their experiences. And we're very excited that you're here from Palestine in the UK. So we decided to take the opportunity to interview you and to hear your voices.
Salma: My name is Salma Awais.
Heather: Welcome.
Kifaf: My name is Kifaf Harekat.
Heather: Welcome. And I think you're both teachers?
Kifaf: Yes.
Heather: And are you teachers at a girls school?
Kifaf: Yes, a math teacher in Abu Dis Secondary Girl's School. Abu Dis is a city adjacent to Jerusalem. And Mrs. Salma is the Principal of the secondary school in Al-Bireh city. It's the same school in which Ahad al Tamimi is a student. Do you know about Ahad al Tamimi? She's a teenager that was arrested by the Israeli soldier because she stood in front of him when he rushed into her home to use the window of her home to shoot people in the streets. She stood in front of him and she just looked in his face and they came at night and arrested her. Now she's been held in prison for four months without yet receiving any sentence.
Heather: I think in the West we have an idea that the position of girls in Palestine is much worse than it actually is. I actually lived in Palestine briefly myself for three months and I was very conscious of how families wanted their girls to be educated.
Kifaf: The situation for women in Palestine is very different than in the West. The father, who is responsible for the family, will think many times before sending his girls to the school if the school is far away from them, or from his house, because she will be stopped by the checkpoints and many obstacles. But I think Mrs. Salma as principal faced some cases when the father, who is responsible for the family, would keep his daughter in the home and not send her to the school. If there are problems like checkpoints and other obstacles, he would be afraid that his daughter will be arrested by the Israeli soldiers because they do not differentiate between teenagers and women.
Heather: So it's not that the father would not want his daughter to be educated, but the father would be worried about all the dangers that might befall the girl when she's outside of the house.
Kifaf: Yes, because there is a problem with the urban planning there. Because of the shortage of land, the neighbourhoods or the boroughs are not designated. There are not designated areas as you have here. You have residential areas and you have schools adjacent to them within a walkable distance. But in Palestine, the case is different. Because we have a shortage of land so mobility is a big issue in Palestine, for both sexes. One real story about girls is related to this issue. Two girls were on the road to the school and they were shot by Israeli soldiers. One of the girls was killed, murdered, and the other was injured and then arrested by the Israeli soldiers.
Heather: It's very difficult for people in the UK to imagine the lives that you lead. Do you think that girls have ambitions? Are they ambitious for what they're going to do when they become adults, become women?
Kifaf: Yes. Absolutely. We have many sexist stories. In spite of all these obstacles, we have many stories related to our sex as girls and women. Maybe you have heard about the teachers and girls who have won international awards, because sometimes when you are under pressure you can accomplish a lot. It is different for the women in Palestinian. She's like any mother in the world, any wife in the world, but, in addition she has to deal with the socioeconomic and political conditions in Palestine. She has much experience to share. One woman has a real story about this. Her daughter invented something and entered a competition to win a reward and go to China. She invented a kind of sensor to detect smoke in the home. The sensor was connected to the mobile of the owner of the house. When the sensor detected smoke, it would send an alarm to the owner and also to the firemen and to the police. It included an IT application and dealing with centres. According to Mrs. Salma’s experience as a principal, there are many ambitious girls. If the circumstances allow these girls to achieve what they want, they will continue their education. But if the circumstances are very difficult, according to what we explained before, then they will be married in Palestine, and the marriage of these girls will be bitter. But I think the percentage of bitter marriages is less than in other areas because in Palestine you will find the percentage of girls continuing their education higher. It is the highest within the area. There is not enough investment. … Yes. When you have investment, you have to invest in humans, in girls and boys, their chances are limited. If the girl is supported by her family, she will develop, she will achieve something more developed, more academic. There are many violations of their rights to education and health, according to the checkpoints. But I want to elaborate on something Mrs Salme has said.
Heather: Please do.
Kifaf: Mrs. Salme studied in Iraq and graduated from Al Mosul in 1984. She is talking about the difference it makes if the girl is given a chance, she will continue her education. Mrs Salme’s father and mother and family were in Jordan because they were refugees since 1948. So she went to Iraq and continued her higher education. She met her husband who was studying at the same university there. At the same time, in another case, the woman was born in Saudi Arabia. She received her university degree from Jordan. In her experience, she found some cases that if the family’s resources are limited, then the priority for education will be given to the boys, unfortunately.
Heather: I think we should probably finish now. It's so interesting. I just wanted to say that it always astonishes me how over the ages, in whichever country or whichever culture, girls struggle for their education and girls succeed in the most inhospitable circumstances. Just give them a little bit and they will make the most of it.
Kifaf: The more you are educated, the more you are capable of dealing with your life issues, with religion. I'd like to add another small thing about Mrs Salme. It's an astonishing story. She wasn’t able to say goodbye to her father when he was dying because he was in Jerusalem and she was in Abu Dis and the separation wall was between them. So her father died before she could see him…
Heather: and say goodbye.
Kifaf: Yes.
Heather: It's so sad. The people listening won't realise how close Abu Dis is to Jerusalem.
Kifaf: Yes. It's like adjacent boroughs within London.
Lisa-Marie: And one last question, just like if you had to have in a sentence, what's your hope for women and girls in education?
Kifaf: Women could achieve a lot in higher positions in the councils and local government. They could be engineers or doctors. Women could have a positive effect.
Heather: So it's not just educating the women, it's getting the jobs that the women can go into. Then the culture will change because women will have important posts within the culture.
Kifaf: Yes, but I think the better the education, the more you could open women’s minds, expand their horizons. It's not about just finding jobs. Maybe your prospects are limited, but if you are better educated you could open your options, working for the community, developing your skills, building your experiences, building your network. This is a result of education.
Heather: Thank you. Excellent. Thank you very much.
Kifaf: Thank you.
Heather: You've been great. Thank you. Thank you.
