Aswat

{{short description|Arab Israeli organization for LGBT women}}{{Infobox organization

| full_name = Aswat - Arab Israeli Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms

| native name = أصوات

| native_name_lang = ar

| logo = Aswat Logo.png

| logo_alt = The logo of Aswat, which is the name of the organization written in stylized multicolored Arabic script

| formation = {{start date and age|2000}}

| founder = Rauda Morcos

| headquarters = Haifa, Israel

| leader_title = Co-director

| leader_name = Ghadir Shafie

| website =

}}

Aswat - Israeli Arab Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms, also known as Aswat ({{Langx|ar|أصوات|lit=Voices}}), is an Israel-based feminist organization that advocates for lesbians and other LGBT women in the Palestinian community. The group started as an online platform in 2000, started having the regular meetings in 2001 and was joined Kayan-Feminist Organization in 2003 as an independent project, making it the first Palestinian organization for Queers and lesbians (LBTIQ).{{Cite book|last=Baird|first=Vanessa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5nzAgAAQBAJ&q=Aswat&pg=PP18|title=The No-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity|date=2007-10-01|publisher=New Internationalist|isbn=978-1-906523-64-0|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=https://www.aswatgroup.org/aswat|access-date=2021-01-27|website=Aswat {{!}} Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms|language=en-US}} It was initially membership-based, but has since{{When|date=May 2021}} transitioned to a movement-based structure. It is based in Haifa, Israel.{{Cite web|title=Aswat – Palestinian Feminist Queer Movement for Sexual and Gender Freedoms|url=https://www.astraeafoundation.org/stories/aswat-palestinian-gay-women/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-15|website=Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704224733/https://www.astraeafoundation.org/stories/aswat-palestinian-gay-women/ |archive-date=2017-07-04 }}

The organization was cofounded by activist Rauda Morcos, who received the Felipe de Souza Award from OutRight Action International for her work with the group. Today, Aswat engages in advocacy work and education while also hosting monthly support group meetings that address sexual orientation, gender identity, and nationality.{{Cite web|last=Anonymous|date=2006-03-22|title=A Celebration of Courage: Rauda Morcos, Founder of ASWAT, the First Palestinian Lesbian Group, Receives Felipa Award|url=https://outrightinternational.org/content/celebration-courage-rauda-morcos-founder-aswat-first-palestinian-lesbian-group-receives|access-date=2020-11-06|website=OutRight Action International|language=en|archive-date=2019-07-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715065625/https://www.outrightinternational.org/content/celebration-courage-rauda-morcos-founder-aswat-first-palestinian-lesbian-group-receives|url-status=dead}} {{As of|2016|May}}, its co-director was Ghadir Shafie.{{Cite journal|last1=Shafie|first1=Ghadir|last2=Chávez|first2=Karma R.|date=2019|title="Pinkwashing and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign," May 25, 2016|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jcivihumarigh.2019.0032|journal=Journal of Civil and Human Rights|volume=5/5|pages=32–48|doi=10.5406/jcivihumarigh.2019.0032|jstor=10.5406/jcivihumarigh.2019.0032|s2cid=211353589|issn=2378-4245}}

History

Morcos said that: "When we started Aswat, I remember the Islamic Movement issued a boycott against us as well as a fatwa [an Islamic religious legal order] against me personally, because according to them I was ‘the snake’s head.’"{{Cite web|url=https://www.972mag.com/lgbtq-palestinians-haifa-queer/|title='A queer cry for freedom': Meet the LGBTQ Palestinians demanding liberation|first=Edo|last=Konrad|date=August 2, 2020|website=+972 Magazine}} In 2004 the group had 14 members.{{Cite web|url=https://xtramagazine.com/power/a-language-no-one-else-is-speaking-41016|title='A language no one else is speaking' | Xtra Magazine|date=September 15, 2004}} In October 2004, Rauda Morcos spoke at the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference at Duke University in her capacity (at the time) as the coordinator of Aswat.{{Cite journal|last=Krahulik|first=Karen C.|date=2005|title=Aswat (Voices): An Interview with Rauda Morcos|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0130.2005.00331.x|journal=Peace & Change|language=en|volume=30|issue=4|pages=492–520|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0130.2005.00331.x|issn=1468-0130}}

In 2007, when Aswat had about 30 members and held its first conference, the Islamic Movement in Israel (a grouping of Arab Muslims) publicly called for the meeting to be cancelled and urged its community "to stand against the campaign to market sexual deviance among our daughters and our women."{{Cite web|url=https://newint.org/columns/currents/2007/06/01/sexual_minorities|title=I'm still alive|date=June 1, 2007|website=New Internationalist}} Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said: "Our community does not tolerate this kind of behaviour. The consensus feels it is kind of a disease that must be healed ..."

On March 28, 2007, Aswat held its first public conference in a theater in Haifa. The event, titled "Home and Exile in Queer Experience," featured poetry readings and music.{{Cite journal|last1=Erstein|first1=Kali|last2=Seelhoff|first2=Cheryl Lindsey|last3=Manzano|first3=Angie|last4=Mantilla|first4=Karla|date=2006|title=ISRAEL: arab lesbians hold conference|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20838692|journal=Off Our Backs|volume=36|issue=4|pages=2|jstor=20838692|issn=0030-0071}} At least 250 people attended the conference; organizers estimated that about 10 to 20 of them were Arab lesbians.{{Cite web|title=Palestinian Gay Women holds historic conference|url=https://www.workers.org/2007/world/aswat-0419/|access-date=2020-11-06|website=www.workers.org}}{{Cite web|title=Arab lesbians hold rare public meeting in Israel|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17842717|access-date=2020-11-06|website=NBC News|date=29 March 2007 |language=en}} The Islamic Movement described the group as a "fatal cancer that should be forbidden from spreading out within the Arab society and from eliminating the Arab culture",{{Cite web|last=Anonymous|date=2007-03-26|title=Palestinian Territories: IGLHRC Supports Free Expression for ASWAT|url=https://outrightinternational.org/content/palestinian-territories-iglhrc-supports-free-expression-aswat|access-date=2020-11-06|website=OutRight Action International|language=en}} and about 20 protesters demonstrated outside the event venue.

In 2011, Aswat and Al Qaws worked with activist Sarah Schulman to organize a delegation of sixteen LGBT people from the United States to Palestine.{{Cite web|date=2020-10-12|title=Tracing my queer consciousness from Palestine to the US, and back again|url=https://mondoweiss.net/2020/10/tracing-my-queer-consciousness-from-palestine-to-the-us-and-back-again/|access-date=2020-11-06|website=Mondoweiss|language=en-US}}{{Cite journal|last1=ATSHAN|first1=SA'ED|last2=MOORE|first2=DARNELL L.|title=Reciprocal Solidarity: Where the Black and Palestinian Queer Struggles Meet|date=2014|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24570200|journal=Biography|volume=37|issue=2|pages=680–705|jstor=24570200|issn=0162-4962}} Following their visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in early 2012, the delegation published a document titled "An Open Letter to LGBTQ Communities on the Israeli Occupation of Palestine."