The Female Voice Is Essential for Peace, Justice, and Safety

By: Jihan Haidar Hasan he female voice can have a profound impact on movements of protest and change. One of the most prominent examples in modern history is Rosa Parks, a courageous African American woman who broke norms that allowed injustice to thrive. Moreover, deep change does not occur without women, because global research and experience have shown that community-change processes led by women tend to last longer, whereas solutions based solely on enforcement eventually collapse. Women bring perseverance, sensitivity, and a systemic perspective. Therefore, without the female voice, violence remains framed as a “men’s problem,” solutions remain superficial, and real pain stays silenced. With the female voice, violence is given a name, a face, and context, and the struggle shifts from protest to a process of change.

In addition to Rosa Parks and those before her who tried to initiate the struggle without receiving recognition, and alongside Hiyam Altareq’s statement regarding the mistaken interpretation of “no casualties,” there are many other leading women. One example is Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, who led a movement of Christian and Muslim women together against the civil war. The women dressed in white, organized a sex strike, and applied non-violent civic pressure. Their contribution led to the end of the war and to the election of Africa’s first female president. Leymah Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the message she conveyed—placing “life and security” before force and weapons—helped change reality.

Another example is the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina—mothers who took to the streets demanding to know the fate of their children who disappeared during the dictatorship. This female-maternal protest created international pressure and exposed the regime’s crimes, with the message that mothers transformed private pain into public moral power.

Another example is Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan, a young girl who insisted on speaking out for girls’ right to education. She survived an assassination attempt and became a global voice, changing international discourse on education, gender, and extremism. The message was that a young female voice can challenge violent power structures.

Another example is Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, a journalist and peace activist who led non-violent protests and combined the struggle against political repression with women’s rights. She too won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the Arab-Israeli context as well, there were women-making-peace initiatives, including a Jewish-Arab women’s movement that emphasized a discourse of human security, motherhood, life, and the future, and succeeded in bringing a female perspective into the center of public and political debate. Its importance lay in serving as a model for women’s partnership even in societies suffering from ongoing violence. There were also local women-led struggles in Arab society in Israel that did not always have an official name: Arab women who led protests after murders in their communities, women who spoke out about domestic violence when others remained silent, and women who turned to the media, the High Court of Justice, and state authorities. Women’s very act of speaking broke norms of silence, forced authorities to respond, and changed community discourse. Change is not always a headline; sometimes it is a deep shift in the legitimacy of speaking out. Globally and in Israel alike, women did not speak in the name of power but in the name of life, children, the future, and community. Women connected emotion, morality, and action—and in doing so changed discourse, and therefore reality.

For these reasons—because women have led or significantly contributed to change processes in general, and particularly in the Muslim world, and because of the importance of the female voice in the relatively liberal, secular Jewish society—it is vital that the female voice be heard in protests against violence in Arab society. As noted, even when violence does not cause physical injuries, it inflicts enormous psychological damage and lifelong trauma.

Arab society in Israel is awakening and protesting the abandonment of personal security. This Saturday there will be a protest against this violence and against the police’s failure to eradicate it, and it is crucial that the female voice be heard at this demonstration!!!

Rosa Parks’ act inspired Martin Luther King to lead a revolt that ultimately resulted in the liberation of Black Americans.

The Arab woman is an educated, thoughtful, and calm woman who can conduct struggles with emotion rather than aggressiveness. She is the one who can bring results satisfactory to Arabs and Jews alike, and to all the peoples of Israel.

Rosa Parks was an activist in the American civil rights movement in Montgomery, the capital of Alabama. In 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. That refusal led to her arrest and trial, and on the other hand inspired Martin Luther King to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which ultimately resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation laws were unconstitutional. Following that decision, the local law requiring segregation on public transportation was repealed.

Before the court’s decision, Rosa Parks was tried and convicted of disturbing the public order and disobeying local law, and was fined. At the time, the law in Montgomery required Blacks and whites to sit separately on buses, and passengers were required to obey the driver’s instructions. It was customary for whites to sit at the front of the bus. Parks did sit in the rear section, but when the front filled up, drivers would typically order Black passengers to give up their seats to whites. Rosa Parks was not the first to be convicted of this offense; ten years earlier, Irene Morgan was convicted of the same offense, and her appeal led to a ban on racial segregation in interstate transportation. Unlike Parks’ case, Morgan’s case did not represent non-violent civil disobedience, and she was not connected to the Black liberation movement; therefore, her case likely did not ignite the widespread reaction that followed Rosa Parks’ arrest.

Following Rosa Parks’ arrest, Martin Luther King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and a petition was also filed on behalf of four African American citizens against the policy of racial segregation. The petition was accepted by the Alabama District Court, and the appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on buses violated the U.S. Constitution. Following ratification, the public bus company ended its segregation policy, and Martin Luther King’s boycott ended. Thus, Parks became a symbol of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Rosa Parks is an example and a symbol of a women-led struggle that resulted in policy change. Israel needs a similar change to eradicate crime in Arab towns. One who was able to ignite such a protest was Ayesh Tareq from Tamra, who reacted to a sense of relief after a shooting incident in Tamra on the grounds that “there were no casualties,” and questioned this interpretation: What is the definition of “casualties”? What is the definition of injury, when people were psychologically harmed after being terrified by the incident?

The female voice in protests against violence and crime in Arab society in Israel will not merely be an addition, but a critical component for several reasons. Women experience violence differently, and often doubly, as they are harmed not only by street crime but also by domestic violence, threats, extortion, and illegal weapons in the home. The female voice exposes invisible violence. Moreover, women promote a discourse of life rather than honor and power. In protests led solely by men, the discourse sometimes revolves around honor, revenge, and force, and focuses only on state responsibility. Women tend to emphasize protecting children, everyday security, community responsibility, and not merely survival but also thinking about the future—thus changing the nature of the struggle.

Additionally, women connect the private sphere with the public sphere, because violence does not begin in the street but at home, in education, and in social norms. As mothers, teachers, caregivers, and community activists, women see the chain of violence from its roots and speak about education, prevention, and healing—not only enforcement. Furthermore, women-led protests enjoy broader public legitimacy. A protest that includes a female voice is perceived as less politically or masculinely aggressive, gains greater identification among both Jewish and Arab publics, and breaks stereotypes about Arab society—something critical for a struggle that requires broad support.

Additional reasons include the fact that women pay an especially high price for silence. In a patriarchal society, women who speak out risk social ostracism, while women who remain silent pay with ongoing violence. The very act of women speaking is an act of courage and a breaking of norms that allow crime to flourish. Moreover, deep change does not occur without women, as research and global experience have shown that community-change processes led by women endure longer, while solutions based solely on enforcement collapse. Thus, women bring perseverance, sensitivity, and a systemic outlook. Without the female voice, violence remains a men’s problem, solutions remain superficial, and real pain stays silenced; with the female voice, violence gains a name, a face, and context, and the struggle transforms from protest into a process of change.

For all these reasons, it is essential that the female voice be heard in the protest against violence in Arab society in Israel.