Muna Abu Sharar: 'I say I am with MIFTAH, which always has a positive impact on women'
By MIFTAH
October 04, 2017




Muna Abu Sharar from the town of Dura in the Hebron district is a political and community activist who has taken part in MIFTAH’s Elections Support Program.




From the beginning onward

Abu Sharar remembers when she first started working with MIFTAH: “It was in 2005 when I started collaborating with MIFTAH and today, I attribute my position in the Dura Municipality gender unit to MIFTAH’s impact on my personality and capacities. Today I am in constant contact with the women of my town and I help in resolving many of their problems. Now, after all these years, I am even more determined to defend women’s rights and make their voices heard in their communities. We needed the tools to make this happen and MIFTAH offered them to us. It gave us the tool of communication and the appropriate means of addressing society and convincing it of the role of women: that she is a key partner for building.”

According to MIFTAH’s Hebron coordinator Maysoun Qawasmi

, Abu Sharar always made sure to always attend, participate and interact within the elections support program.

In this regard, Abu Sharar says.

“The information and skills MIFTAH provided me with during its town hall meetings in Dura, the communications training and the mechanisms for decision-making from a gender perspective are all interventions women need. I took all of these skills and information to each ‘khirbeh” (hamlet) in Dura and taught them to the women there. I would introduce myself as being affiliated with MIFTAH, which always had a positive impact on the women. They were so enthusiastic when I came because I offered them something new in terms of municipalities and elections and their participation as women in them. Today, these women’s voices are heard and society is much more accepting of their participation.”

MIFTAH’s interventions reflect on performance

In regards to how MIFTAH’s interventions impacted her performance, Abu Sharar maintains: “I began to work methodically instead of randomly like before. I had knowledge and awareness of laws, communication skills, means of impacting and solving problems; fundamental skills, which I learned from MIFTAH”.

The components of success Abu Sharar says a woman’s success depends first and foremost on her own determination, in this regard she said .

“It is first about her personality and her willingness to constantly develop herself, advance her own skills.”

For Abu Sharar, her experience with MIFTAH taught her valuable lessons.

“A woman must first work on herself. After that, she will find many others who will stand by her and support her.”

Is MIFTAH in Abu Sharar’s future plans?

“I am proud of my long relationship with MIFTAH and I hope to receive even more support and awareness to promote the gender unit in the Dura village council. This would greatly encourage and motivate me. All of the council members realize that my presence in the council means I have something to offer the women of our town. Even they come up to me and ask: ‘So, anything new from MIFTAH?’”

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