Ibtisam Mahameed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ibtisam Mahameed - Essay Example She helps them enhance their confidence and then introduce them to peer groups of the three main religions – Christianity, Judaism, as well as Islam (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). For a number of years, Mahameed has been offering advice to Jewish and Arab women concerning their status in the society. As a religious woman – Muslim, she has worked with religious Druze, Christian and Jewish women on promoting peace through learning about each other’s religions, as well as cultures, and spreading them to other religions. She is currently on the board members of Middleway, a group for promoting a peaceful, non-violence community, and she was instrumental in helping establish the Women’s Interfaith Encounter, a women’s program of the IEA – Interfaith Encounter Association (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). As we can see, Ibtisam Mahameed is a very influential woman, one that can be contrasted to the likes of Mother Teresa and Wangari Mathai of Kenya due to her work. This paper will dwell on this prominent Arab woman who has gone against all odds to establish herself in a nation that disregards the female race. It will dwell on her background, works, influences and achievements. Background Ibtisam Mahameed is a member of the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel, a group, which lost most of its terrain, assets, rights and freedom, in the Israel’s War of Independence, in 1948. ... She has eight siblings – three brothers and five sisters, and she and her husband, a house painter, have three children. She is currently in her early 50’s. She states that when she was growing up, extremely few girls in the Arab community had schooling rights, but her parents were incredibly supportive, and she managed to complete high school. Since then, she has studied educational administration and management. As a religious woman, particularly Muslim, Mahameed claims that she is obliged to wear traditional garments (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). Unfortunately, the Israeli community around her associates every religious Muslim with potential terrorism and extremism. Her peace activist work needs her to travel a lot and alone (not with her family members) around Israel and throughout the work. Therefore, she is obliged to spend nights away from her family members, a matter that is very odd in the traditional Arab community (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). In such a community, the woman is expected always to be at home fending for her family while the husband goes to work. This is why harsh rules are imposed on women and working in the Arab world. In the beginning, Mahameed says that some members of her family found it very hard to accept her association with Jews and Christians, as well as her work for Arab-Jewish co-existence (Global Oneness Project 1). The family members who found that odd even went to the extent of not talking to her, but now support her. She claims that her family pays a social price due to her activism. For instance, her daughter was the main candidate for a teaching job in Mahameed’s home town, but she was denied the opportunity as the village elders felt