| Kayan aims to empower Palestinian women with a comprehensive knowledge of their rights in both the private and public spheres, to develop and activate Palestinian women’s transformative leadership in decision-making process in the public sphere, including in the political sphere, and to ensure the full human and civil rights of Palestinian women. Through two interconnected and mutually reinforcing departments, we work towards these goals on several parallel levels, utilizing strategies of empowerment, awareness-raising, community organizing, and social and political advocacy.
Kayan’s Legal Department uses the law to protect women’s human and civil rights, while advocating for their social, legal, and financial rights. Specifically, the Legal Department investigates institutional barriers to women’s rights, empowers Palestinian women to demand their rights, and litigates in defense of those rights. It also plays an advocacy role, promoting legislation that will protect women’s rights. The Legal Department is focusing on two themes: 1. Personal status, including promoting civil marriage 2. Employment rights, including ending sexual harassment in the workplace Furthermore, it supports and leverages the Community Work department’s work by expanding on relationships in Arab communities in order to inform grassroots women leaders about their rights. It also elevates the voices of grassroots women to the international level through the United Nations. Kayan’s Department of Community Work mobilizes women to challenge gender discrimination at the levels of family, community and society. Kayan invests in the development of Arab women’s leadership at the grassroots to achieve this. Supporting women-led community organizing in Arab society is our main work. Among the main themes of our grassroots work are: ending violence against women and supporting women’s participation in politics. |