Feminist School: A Tool to Advance Alternative Women’s Discourse
It responds to the urgent need to reclaim and expand civic space in Palestine by equipping young women and men with the tools, knowledge, and critical awareness necessary to engage in public life, influence policies, and advocate for rights. The School is grounded in a feminist analytical framework, which critically examines power relations, gender inequalities, and structural injustices, while promoting inclusive and participatory approaches to leadership and social change.
Feminist School
PWWSD was established at a time when the Palestinian community was dominated by traditional discourse that referred to habits and traditions as a tool to protect existence against external threats. Since its establishment, PWWSD has advocated for an alternative discourse that connects women’s issues with the community's global issues, built on rights and the principles of social justice and gender equality.
The adopted discourse developed gradually in light of the developments that the Palestinian context witnessed on several levels, as developing it was part of the institutional and programmatic development of the organization. As a turning point, PWWSD started connecting its discourse with the international frameworks and instruments. The organization realized in Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, a good starting point to start connecting the issues of Palestinian women with the global issues. Within the debate and discussion that the United Nations witnessed during the year 2000 about women’s rights, which resulted later on in the issuance of UNSCR 1325, PWWSD started the process of localizing the global frameworks within the local context in Palestine. Recalling its accumulated experience in advocating women’s rights and drawing on international experiences of countries that have passed through similar experiences, PWWSD managed to make the adopted discourse part of its institutional identity. Thanks to that, the organization became one of the main references for gender equality and promoting women’s rights within the landscape of civil work in Palestine. Being an active member in several national and global networks and coalitions dedicated to advancing women’s rights and gender equality, PWWSD promotes its discourse and keeps connecting it with developments in the world as well as developments in the local context.
The organization utilizes several tools in promoting its discourse, and the identified tool is based on the nature of the target audience. In this regard, through the educational activities that target women and young women groups, the organization promotes the discourse. Additionally, publications and digital media platforms are used as channels to promote the discourse. All the published research, studies, policy papers, position papers, statements, and other works promote the discourse of PWWSD. Furthermore, the various lobbying and advocacy activities are informed by the discourse that PWWSD adopts.
One of the most significant tools through which PWWSD promotes its discourse is the Feminist School. The Feminist School is the first of this kind in Palestine and the second on the level of the MENA Region. The first cohort of the school was implemented in coordination with the Women's Studies Institute at Birzeit University and included students (males/females) from many Palestinian CSOs and other interested students (22 participants). The Feminist School proposed a series of lectures delivered by professors (females) from Birzeit University and addressed the various feminist theories and connected them to the Palestinian context. The first cohort concluded the school by producing research papers about topics of their own addressing Women’s issues and gender equality.
Key Topics Include
- Gender in Palestine: a historical and critical reading