Conflict Resolution Center delivers a training course on advocacy skills for women's issues

Gaza, Publication and Information Unit:
Activating the khul' law, making women legally aware and enacting laws to reduce the forms of violence women are subjected to were the priorities for protecting and empowering women, as identified by the participants when each of them took on the role of the president of the Palestinian Authority.
This came in a training course entitled "Mobilisation and advocacy skills for women's issues", delivered by the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution within the events of the project "Towards a society free of violence against women", funded by Norwegian People's Aid (NPA).
In this context, Abdel Moneim Al-Tahrawi, projects director at the Centre and facilitator of the course, said there is a negative view spreading through Palestinian society about equality and gender, saying: "The concept of gender and women's rights falls between a bigot who refuses to discuss these rights and another who speaks as if we were on a planet other than Palestine and wants to apply concepts without regard for social, cultural and religious circumstances, which are in turn important factors in building and defining concepts."
Mr. Al-Tahrawi also pointed out that the concept of gender is equality between men and women in accessing their rights, such as education, health, political participation, employment, safety and other rights, and non-discrimination between being female or male. He added: "Other subjects will be presented during the training period, such as communication and outreach, lobbying and advocacy and networking skills, as the training aims to build the first youth pressure group on women's rights."
In another vein, Abdel Karim Al-Baraghithi, one of the participants in the course, said he had been convinced that women had obtained their rights "and more", like some men, but that after taking part in the course his view changed. He said there are many women still living under injustice who do not know how to claim their rights and reach them.
For her part, Duaa Salama, one of the participants in the course, said that courses of this kind refine the trainees' capacities and make them aware of many issues concerning women and their rights and how to reach these rights, calling for further courses to be held to make as many young people as possible aware of their rights.
It should be noted that this course comes in the context of the activities of the campaign advocating for women's issues, carried out by the Centre within the events of the project "Towards a society free of violence".