"When Tahrir Al Zheidi began this course, she would barely speak. Although we were all women, she was too shy, too filled with anxiety to say anything in front of us," said Safa Shehada at last week's graduation ceremony of SHATIL's Bedouin Women for Our Rights course. Shehada is the director of Ma’an, the Forum of Arab Women’s Organizations in the Negev,  SHATIL's partner in the 20-session course.  The course focused on theoretical and experiential learning about social change and human rights with several sessions devoted to project planning. Participants were guided in developing initiatives that they are currently implementing  within Ma’an’s family of Bedouin women’s organizations. "Tahrir made great strides," Shehada continued. "An exhibition of her art work just opened at the Multaka, a center for Arab-Jewish co-existence in Be'er Sheva."

The Rights Course was part of SHATIL's Bedouin Women's Leadership Project, which has equipped hundreds of Bedouin women with tools and skills to work for change in their communities.  Past participants have gone on to make impressive strides, including one graduate who was the first Bedouin woman to ever run for city council. 

Graduates and friends enjoying a traditional Bedouin meal

Field projects organized by Course participants as part of their graduation requirements include: a project informing black Bedouin women farm workers about their rights; a health project, "A Strong Mind in a Healthy Body;" a project on Documentation and Collective Memory; one on Peace in the Home and many more.

Amal Abu Alkum, a young woman from the unrecognized Bedouin village of Wadi Na'am, explained the importance of the course to her. "This course is worth more to me than an academic degree," she said.  "It enables us to focus on ourselves and gives us the tools, the knowledge and the professionalism to work for positive change."

Abu Alkum is the founder of the grassroots group Bedouin Women for Ourselves and she was chosen as one of three panelists to speak at a celebration of 300 women in Dimona in honor of International Women's Day in March. Her course project focuses on health issues unique to the Bedouin as they move from a semi-nomadic to a modern lifestyle. 

A celebratory hug as Sultan Abu Abed, second from right, co-director of SHATIL's Be'er Sheva office, presents a course participant with her graduation certificate

Yarona Ben-Shalom, co-director of the SHATIL hub for social change in the Negev said, "Amal is a fixture at SHATIL. She doesn't have access to the Internet or a computer at home so she comes to our offices to develop her projects, to look for funders — for everything."

As we left the festivities, held in a Bedouin tent replete with traditional Bedouin foods such as hummus, labane and salads, we overheard Abu Alkum say, "Next week I will be at SHATIL all week, the whole week!"