Hello Sundus! How are you? Hi Darine! I'm fine thankfully. How are you doing? I am very good, and I'm so happy you're here with us today from Palestine I'm here in Jordan. And we are from Open Arms for Art. We are so happy that you are with us today. And to share with us your activities and projects you're working on. So I would like to start with you telling us a bit about yourself. Thank you for hosting me and I'm excited to join you today. My name is Sundus Al-Fararja I am a student in Intern
ational Law and Human Rights. And mainly I'm a human rights activist. And I'm really interested in women's and gender issues, and the enduring occupation in Palestine. Currently, I'm the founder, trainer and leader of a youth group, in a youth club at university which is called Womenity club At this club we aim to develop, empower and educate Palestinian youth on everything related to women's rights and we fight to prevent violence against women. Alongside these volunteering and activities with
organizations This is currently the thing that I'm most focused on And I represent my college in a global network which is called OSUN which is The Open Society University Network and my role is as a global fellow in this network. In order to help youth and project leaders of their community-based projects from all over the globe to develop their projects and the network collaboratively and to help them develop into social activists wherever they're from. Oh, honestly that's so amazing! I am so
happy to know more about you and I admire the projects your are working on. And I would like to start with my first question I want to know your opinion about the movement currently happening in Palestine in regards to women's rights and equality. I want to know what actions youth are taking towards prevention of violence against women and gender based violence in their communities. So I would love to hear more from you on what's happening in Palestine and what role youth are playing in this mov
ement? Currently there is an increase of social media platform usage. It's a massive increase which is expanding more and more all the time, and you can see campaign after campaign occurring, each one larger than the one before it. These campaigns are mobilizing civil society, addressing the Palestinian public to put pressure on/ and accelerate the passing of legislation although currently the legislative council is inactive Due to this fact, right now youth are playing an effective role on such
issues However, and unfortunately it still seems like these movements are just trends These movement are not necessarily sustainable over a longer period of time as the time that it actually takes for policies to be adopted and brought into law ends up affecting youth's enthusiasm. Currently the situation is much better than in the past years though during the present we are observing an increased interest and shedding more light on issues in both the media and from activists. About women's rig
hts violations and violence against women That unfortunately sometimes results in murder. Wow, what can I say. I feel the most important thing that youth can do is to start individual or group initiatives As well as work on smaller projects to raise awareness Or groups and initiatives can talk to each other about women's rights and how to deliver specific awareness activities. For example, in their universities to better defend and introduce laws that would empower women. Now I would like to tal
k to you about an issue that was mentioned, in a study in Jordan in 2019, about how there were more than 200 girls and women murdered due to honour killings as well as in Palestine, where a study stated that there were more than 18 honour killings in a single year. But of course in Palestine there are even more than this number happening each year Personally I believe though that the number is even more than this But the problem is that many of these cases are recorded under other charges, in or
der not to be recorded as cases of violence against women. I would like to hear more about your opinion, and how we can work to eliminate this practice.
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