Ibtisam Mahameed | about my work

<BODY> <H1><A HREF="ibt3-work.html">Ibtisam Mahameed</A></H1> <H4>About my work</H4> <BR> <P>I have been active in Interfaith work since April 2002 when a religious Jewish woman, Elana Rozenman, and I founded the Northern Chapter of the Women's Interfaith Encounter, a program of the Interfaith Encounter Association, doing interfaith work amongst women. We meet every month in a different community, giving the participants of three faiths exposure to different lifestyles and cultures.</P> <P>We invite religious leaders from the three faiths to come to meet us, and we learn from a wide variety of religious texts about women's position in society and their contribution to it.</P> <P>I am a woman in a patriarchal, traditional society that suffers from discrimination, high unemployment and much internal conflict. I live in an oppressed minority in a country founded for and existing for the benefit of another people  the Jews.</P> <P CLASS="bigger"><B><I>How it all started</I></B></P> <P>I have been a peace activist since 1988. I started this work in my village, getting to know my neighbors. Then I worked with women in the neighboring Jewish villages, working with women on the status of women in society and against domestic abuse. It took me a long time to work on myself to know what I want to do and to talk from the heart.</P> <P>My first contact with Jews was as a little girl, accompanying my mother, who used to cook for Jewish households in the nearby town of Zikhron Yaakov. I made friends and started to learn Hebrew. Then I met a Jewish woman from Zikhron Yaakov who came to my village of Fureidis to teach fitness classes. We clicked instantly and developed a deep friendship.</P> <P>We then started a nationwide non-political women's network in 1992 called the Peace Begins Within Association, where I was the director. The idea of the organization is that if I'm at peace within myself, I make peace with others. We have meetings once a month between women from every sector of society, with the aim of getting to know one another and breaking down the barriers of stereotypes which reduces fears and paves the way to real unity. It is the task of women to raise our children at home in an atmosphere of openness and acceptance.</P> <P ALIGN="right" CLASS="linksbig"><A HREF="ibt4-activism.html" TITLE="Click for the next page">NEXT: Activism</A></P>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2"> </script><script type="text/javascript"> </script><noscript><img height="1" width="1" alt="" src="http://nht-2.extreme-dm.com/n2.g?login=jpeace&pid=ibtwork&j=n&jv=n"/> </noscript>  </BODY>