On 28.3.16, a national Young Women’s Parliament conference took place in Kfar-Saba, with the theme of, “Breaking the silence – Young women say no to sexual violence”, with the participation of young women from Jewish and Arab localities that partake in the ongoing activity of the Young Women’s Parliament. The conference was organized by young women from the “Young Women Leading Change” group from Kfar-Saba – a group that was founded with the initiative of the local Women’s Council, and became a part of the national Young Women’s Parliament five years ago.
(A summary of an article that was published in the “Tzomet Hasharon” newspaper >>)
On the open stage, the high school female students from Kfar-Saba revealed another disturbing phenomenon, according to which, in the local high schools, the use of crude sexual language, which constitutes sexual harassment according to the penal code, has become prevalent, and all because of expressions that became common, when they exchanged the regular “good morning” greeting with sentences such as, “I would like to fuck you”, or, “you have really nice tits”.
Other phenomena were revealed on the same stage, in the conference, as ones that one must act against; for example, the growing involvement of mothers in the diet and the appearance of their daughters.
The main show in the conference was that of the photographer Liron Breier, who was sexually assaulted, when she was eight years old, by the father of a close friend. She filed a complaint with the police, who closed the case with the excuse of “lack of public interest”. The young woman turned this excuse to the title of an exhibition that she created.
The words of the group’s moderator in Kfar-Saba, Rachel Levi-Hertz, a graduate of personal coaching and parent training programs, and a developer of programs for adolescent youth, about the “Young Women Leading Change” group’s activity:
“Apart from the processes of learning and providing the tools of self-esteem, assertiveness, a healthy self-image, leadership skills and the like, we encourage social activism and significant volunteering for the community among the young women from the ‘Young Women Leading Change’ group.”
The words of Reut Sapir, a student at the Katzenelson high school, an activist with the “Young Women Leading Change” group:
“Girls tell me that they attend parties for both junior high and high school students, and there are boys, whom they don’t even know, who come and grab them from behind. It happened to me too, that someone whom I had never met tried to pull me close to him. I can understand someone who wants to flirt with you, and starts a conversation, but it seems as if they see it – as some of the girls do as well – as a legitimate flirt. It is clear to us that this is a problem, and a kind of harassment against which we must act. We brought up the subject as one of the topics that need addressing in this conference. This subject, as well as the others that were brought up in the conference, is a result of our desire to raise awareness, and from our need to organize and resist wrong behavioral norms that are prevalent today among youth in general and our society in particular.”
The words of Tamar Eshet, a student at the Katzenelson high school, who came to the “Young Women Leading Change” group after participating in the workshop for B’not Mitzvah that was conducted by the group’s activists:
“From a very young age, girls are taught to be pretty, gentle, silent and passive, by way of productions like Disney’s ‘the little mermaid’, and the likes. ‘Be beautiful but shut up’, use your body, your figure and your beauty to achieve things. You are told that men like women who are silent. We, too, experienced as children what sixth-graders experience today”.
According to Rachel Levi-Hertz, it is possible to see the influence of the workshops that were developed and are conducted by the “Young Women Leading Change” group’s activists, on the subject of the sexual language at the schools. The workshops raise the awareness in the classes that participate in them, and change the manner in which the boys treat the girls. The workshops also include a thorough introduction to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Law, and they resulted from a long series of conversations in which the girls shared the unpleasant comments they receive at school from their classmates. After the workshops, everybody understands that apart from being inappropriate, the comments are also a criminal act according to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Law. The workshops allow the boys to understand the wrong behavior, and the meaning of the law”.
About 2 weeks before this YWP session, the girls from Kfar-Saba and Tira groups participated in a workshop (“Spokenoar”) that was guided by Gilad Bloom. In the closing part of the session, 5 girls from Kfar-Saba and Tira read a rap song which was written in the workshop by all the girls.
The song’s lyrics:
Things a man will never understand
A period
Period pains
Period Hunger
Period Nerves
Do not talk to me in the Morning when I have my period
It’s not cool to blame everything on my period
The time it takes me to get organized
Moods
Why do we get angry
What is funny and what is not
Bonds between true friends
Signs and clues 😉
Things men should understand
We are strong
And courageous
Think outside the box!
Do not talk to me in the morning
Do not talk to me about food
Not everything I do is for attention.
Things we cannot understand about men
Their Retarded humor
Pose
Why everything has to do with sex
What they think
What interests them
What do they want from us?
And why are they so horny?
Don’t get me wrong. It’s fun to be a woman
We get attention
We are smarter
More Sensitive
Thinkers
We are perfect
We are the power!
We are street smart
We pour out our soul
And much more.
Dresses
Clothing
Shopping
Look at us
We do what we want
We women understand each other
We feel each other
We have energy and feminine intelligence
We contain
We provide
We have the power to create life
Human kind begins here!
And we want
To be confident
Not to be shy
Dress up
For ourselves!
To express ourselves, and to speak up
I have things to say, my words have impact
I want to be free all the time
But the reality of a girl in 2016 is that it is scary to walk the streets at night
Even at daytime
Not just for girls, for women of any age
And not just in the street
A woman at her work place suffers hardship, from men
It does not matter if the men I know are those who sit and drink coffee,
They could easily be wearing a tie and a suit,
Because either he works and I’m in the kitchen
Or I’m working and he is resting.
So I cook him some eggs.
A hell of an Omelet,
But his mind is blocked
No matter what
You are a woman? Do what he tells you!
Someone told me the feminist revolution has already ended.
Has it ended?
Is my salary sufficient to maintain a family?
Do you feel equal?
There is a reason we’re here.
We must continue to strive for equality
We have to show strength
We will fight if needed
We are strong, but not for you!
The sun shines after the rain, and behind every man there is a woman
I want to believe in myself
I want equal opportunities, they say opportunities are not given but taken, but how much can you take?
How much can you?