Dear friends,
Some of you are familiar with the Tuskuteesh (don’t remain silent in Arabic) Facebook page that me and my friend co-founded a bit over a year ago.
The page is a safe space for Arab women to share testimonies of sexual violence. It’s revolutionary in that it’s the only such space. Although we started locally for Palestinian women in Israel, we were soon able to break geographical barriers, and we received testimonies from the Occupied West Bank, Gaza, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Marocco, Tunisia, and Jordan. Up till today, we published some 70 testimonies, which is a huge number, considering the taboo of this issue within the Arab society.
The page is grassroots, and doesn’t belong to any organization, which is also one of its strengths, that it has succeeded in mobilizing thousands of women, and they feel ownership of the project. We have over 16,000 followers and keep growing.
With the page, we were able to change the discourse within the local context, and recently I was personally threatened, which only proves the success and the importance of the page.
I am writing you today to ask for a small request: all the work on the page is done by me and my partner on a voluntary basis, and we have no funds whatsoever. In the past, we were able to raise a small amount of funds to enable us to print stickers, magnets, and tote bags. Now we are out of stickers and magnets, and we’re reaching out to our networks of friends for small donations to enable us to print some materials. The link for donations: paypal.me/KhuludKhamis. If you can’t donate, please feel free to share with your networks and friends.
In solidarity, khulud
Sending you two media articles about the page:
(2) the English translation of an article about the page that was featured originally in the German Die Welt: http://haifafieldnotes.blogspot.co.il/2016/01/palestinian-women-breaking-silence.html
Writing in the Margins 