"Palestinian Voices: Feminist Thought As A Tool For Resistance"

First International Conference, June 28-29, 2007

Ms. Safa Shehada

Ms. Safa Shehada was born in1963 to an Arab family in Lod, a mixed city in Israel. Shehada studied management at The College of Management in Tel Aviv. She attended Ben Gurion University of the Negev where she pursued a bachelors and masters degree in Social Work while working as a teacher at a Bedouin School for tenth to twelfth graders. In 1991, Shehada began working with multiple women’s organizations in the Negev, facilitating groups of women and giving advice to women’s groups in the Negev. In 2001, Shehada became the director of Ma’an. In addition, Shehada works as a social worker with youth at risk in Be’er Sheva. She also serves as the director of activities in the Bedouin Sector for Shatil.

The Arab Woman in the South: Between the Hammer of the Law And the Anvil of Tradition

The government’s policy and attempts to impose life solutions that are inappropriate for Bedouin society, but that suit the government’s declared goal of Judaizing the Negev, extended in recent years even to the field of personal status when the government reduced the social assistance paid to Bedouin families. The justification given for this reduction was that it was an unavoidable means of dealing with personal status issues, but in reality it aims to cut the size of payments to a minimum.

Arab women in the Negev who live in polygamous families are the most prominent examples of the injustice that results primarily from the authorities’ disregard for the difficult socio-economic situation of women who live according to different social and familial patterns. The National Insurance Institute has exploited this situation in order to impose an unusual, exceptional formula (Amendment No. 5 to the Income Support, 1987) Two families are considered to be the single family of one husband / father provider, even in cases where an actual divorce has occurred between a man and one of the wives. The institute does not recognize these women as being entitled to income support payments, and pays income support payments to the head of these two families on the basis that they constitute only one family. The difference is, of course, a large one as regards the sums of money paid out (i.e 500 shekels as opposed to 2,000 shekels).

This has led to extremely difficult situations in which many women live without financial support from their husbands and without being recognized as entitled to income support. This is of great consequence in light of the social restrictions which limit women’s educational opportunities and their integration into the labor market. The National Insurance Institute in Israel is not carrying out its duty to provide solutions for the socio-economic situations of Arab women in polygamous families, and the appropriate steps have not been taken to deal with the issue by the competent authorities.