In partnership with Saskia Keeley, a U.S.-based professional photojournalist and peace activist, Taghyeer conducted a series of six photography workshops for women in 2018 and 2019. The workshops took place in different areas throughout the Westbank and in cooperation with different organizations:
- 2 workshops in Nablus with 30 Taghyeer Women
- 1workshop in Twani, South Hebron Hills, with 12 women from Twani Women Society
- 1 workshop in Al Shyookh with 15 women from Women Cooperative
- 1 workshop in Halhul with 13 women from Halhul Youth Council
- 1 workshop in Dura with 15 women from Future Youth Arms
Through these cooperations with different women organizations, Taghyeer was able to introduce its principles to many women with different backgrounds and all ages, and thus recruited many of them into the movement. In addition, we developed our partnership with the respective organizations.
Objectives:
In the patriarchal society in Palestine, women do not have the same voice to state their opinion or engage in conversation like men - their ability to express themselves is limited. The camera serves as a tool of expression; learning how to photograph increases the women’s self-esteem, capabilities, and freedom of expression that is not tied to the fear of being silenced. The workshops aimed to equip the women with documentation skills in order to highlight the challenges of their communities and work on decreasing them.
For example, Taghyeer women used their newly acquired skills to document their beautification activities in Nablus Municipality Park. This way, the attention of both the municipality as well as the community was drawn to the problem that was solved by developing the park. Moreover, photography opens up dialogue not only with potential stakeholders but also within the women groups and therefore supports critical thinking.
Skills
Participants learned basic technical camera skills and best practices for composition of photographic images.
Participants created a list of identified challenges and resources within different communities.
Participants documented the identified challenges in order to communicate progress (“before” and “after”) on issues the Women Groups took action to resolve.
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