The Community Media Center (CMC) held a dialogue session on women’s rights in academic institutions and in the media as part of the activities of the second phase of the project "Promoting a culture of respect for women’s rights in academic institutions - Respect them", which is implemented by CMC in partnership with the German Heinrich Böll Foundation.

The session saw the participation of about 30 journalists from various local and regional traditional and digital media. Kholoud Al-Sawalmeh, Project Manager at the CMC, explained that the Respect Her project aims to promote a culture of respect for women’s rights and gender equality in academic institutions in the Gaza Strip by enabling female academics to defend their rights and educating university students and academics about women’s rights.

Andaleeb Adwan, Director of the Community Media Center, confirmed that women in academic institutions, whether academic or student, face a series of violations related to the implementation of their rights within universities, and this was proven by a study entitled "The Reality of Academies in Academic Institutions in the Gaza Strip" prepared by CMC last month. Adwan commented: "The Community Media Center continues its work in supporting and promoting a culture of respect for women’s rights in academic institutions for the third year in a row in all possible ways and means.

The journalists participating in the dialogue session recommended the need to develop the discourse of societal and feminist institutions in shedding light on women’s issues and rights, and to enhance the motivation of women to declare the violations they are exposed to in academic institutions. Furthermore, they stressed the importance of using the media to pressure Advocacy to raise the percentage of women’s representation at all levels in Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip.