Aswat - Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms, also known as Aswat , is a
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
organization that advocates for
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
s and other
LGBT women
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is an ...
in the
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
community. The group was founded in 2003, making it the first Palestinian organization for lesbians. It was initially membership-based, but has since transitioned to a
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
-based structure.
It is based in
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
.
The organization was cofounded by activist
Rauda Morcos
Rauda Morcos is a Palestinian poet and LGBTIQ activist living in Haifa in Israel. In 2003, she was outed as a lesbian by a national newspaper, leading to dismissal from her job, physical assaults and attacks on her car. She then set up Aswat, the f ...
, who received the Felipe de Souza Award from
OutRight Action International
OutRight Action International (OutRight) is a LGBTIQ human rights non-governmental organization that addresses human rights violations and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. OutRight Action International doc ...
for her work with the group. Today, Aswat engages in advocacy work and education while also hosting monthly support group meetings that address
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
,
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
, and
nationality
Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...
. , its co-director was
Ghadir Shafie.
History
In October 2004,
Rauda Morcos
Rauda Morcos is a Palestinian poet and LGBTIQ activist living in Haifa in Israel. In 2003, she was outed as a lesbian by a national newspaper, leading to dismissal from her job, physical assaults and attacks on her car. She then set up Aswat, the f ...
spoke at the
Palestine Solidarity Movement
The Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) is a student organization in the United States which was established in 2000 after the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in Israel. The organization aims to use "divestment as a tactic to non-violently influence ...
conference at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in her capacity (at the time) as the coordinator of Aswat.
On March 28, 2007, Aswat held its first public conference in a theater in
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
. The event, titled "Home and Exile in Queer Experience," featured poetry readings and music. At least 250 people attended the conference; organizers estimated that about 10 to 20 of them were Arab lesbians.
The
Islamic Movement described the group as a "fatal cancer that should be forbidden from spreading out within the Arab society and from eliminating the Arab culture", and about 20 protesters demonstrated outside the event venue.
In 2011, Aswat and
Al Qaws
Al Qaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society (Arabic: القوس للتعددية الجنسية والجندرية في المجتمع الفلسطيني), often referred to as "alQaws" ("The ainow") , is a Palestinian civil so ...
worked with activist
Sarah Schulman
Sarah Miriam Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at College of Staten Island (CSI) and a Fellow a ...
to organize a delegation of sixteen
LGBT people
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and social ...
from the United States to Palestine.
Following their visit to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and the
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The I ...
in early 2012, the delegation published a document titled "An Open Letter to LGBTQ Communities on the Israeli Occupation of Palestine."
See also
*
Al Qaws
Al Qaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society (Arabic: القوس للتعددية الجنسية والجندرية في المجتمع الفلسطيني), often referred to as "alQaws" ("The ainow") , is a Palestinian civil so ...
*
LGBT in Islam
Attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their experiences in the Muslim world have been influenced by its religious, legal, social, political, and cultural history. The Quran narrates the story of the "peop ...
*
LGBT rights in the State of Palestine
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender (LGBT) people in Palestine face a precarious situation due to a lack of civil rights legislation aimed at tackling discrimination. There is also a significant legal divide between the West Bank and Gaza Stri ...
*
Pinkwashing (LGBT)
Pinkwashing is the strategy of promoting LGBT rights protections as evidence of liberalism and democracy, especially to distract from or legitimize violence against other countries or communities, often to improve a country's tarnished reputa ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Lesbian feminism
LGBT organizations
LGBT in Palestine
Lesbian organizations
LGBT rights organizations
LGBT culture in the Arab world
Human rights organizations based in the State of Palestine
Queer feminism
Organizations established in 2003
Organizations based in Haifa