The Bedouin Women’s Rights Center was established in 2006 at the southern branch of the Association in Beer-Sheva, for the purpose of providing a comprehensive solution to legal problems and social issues that had been identified among Bedouin women.
Main focus of the Bedouin Women’s Rights Center:
- The National Insurance Institute, and issues related to guaranteed income support and eligibility of single mothers for personal benefits.
- Individual assistance for filing police complaints and legal proceedings for victims of domestic violence.
Individual Assistance provided via the Center’s Hotline
Together through the Center’s lawyers and coordinator, we provide counseling, legal assistance and representation to dozens of Bedouin women every year whose personal stories and struggles when encountering state authorities have become a fight for the basic rights they are entitled to by law.
Our many years of experience in representing Bedouin women have helped us to develop a broad social and legal understanding of the issues concerning Bedouin women.
Legislative and Policy Activities at the Center
We work with welfare services, police, Ministry of Public Security and community officials such as Tipat Halav Mother and Child Health Care Centers, and clinics with regard to employment, social security, polygamy and violence.
We work in collaboration with many organizations in the Negev, especially the Bedouin women’s organizations. To express the position of Bedouin women and to ensure that the issues concerning them are on the public agenda, we publish reports and position papers, file petitions with the High Court of Justice and the Administrative Courts, and are active on various Knesset committees.
The solutions we propose in various position papers seek to strengthen a holistic response to the needs of Bedouin women, to significantly improve the protection against violence that they receive from the State’s services, to strengthen their economic security, including extricating them from the cycle of income support in a proper and appropriate manner, and developing their skills and open opportunities and opportunities.