Two weeks ago Hassin al-Sana, a veteran volunteer at the association for the improvement of the status of women, in the Negev Bedouin town of Lakia, was awakened by her neighbors at 1 A.M. The association's textile workshop had been set on fire. It turned out the blaze had been started by individuals who oppose the association; they had broken a window, poured incendiary liquid inside and ignited it. "It took firefighters 40 minutes to get here, by which time we had put the fire out ourselves," Sana said. "It was hard for me to see the place, it hurt."
The next morning, as the dozens of women employed in the workshop surveyed the damage, many of them broke into tears. "There are women who support their children from this work," Sana said. "I myself collapsed and was taken to the hospital."
The fire was not the first time the workshop has been targeted. But this time the women decided not to keep silent. Yesterday they organized a protest against the vandalism and against the men who are trying to destroy what they are building.
Bedouin woman are probably the most deprived group in Israel. Although in recent years many young women have finished high school and even gone to university, they usually return home afterward and do not work. Hence the importance of the workshop. In addition to the textile work, the workshop operates a mobile library, the only one in Lakia, which serves some 400 children, as well as a literacy project for women in Arabic and Hebrew. The association also operates a daily pre-school for working mothers from 7 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. and runs a leadership development project for teenage girls.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/583370.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
