Gaza - Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) - May 2023

The Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) held two workshops this month on the rights and reality of women in academic institutions and addressing them in the media, with the participation of a group of media professionals and activists of both sexes. These workshops came on the sidelines of the activities of World Press Freedom Day 2023.

Basma al-Kurd, media coordinator at the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC), said, “Women in academic institutions face a series of violations related to the implementation of their rights within universities, in addition to discrimination against them, which has limited their effective participation and fair representation at most administrative and academic levels.” 

Al-Kurd explained, “The Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) seeks to involve media professionals and activists of both sexes in efforts to advocate for women’s rights in society and in academic institutions, believing in their active role in addressing these issues using various media and social media platforms.”

The two workshops were moderated by Mahmoud Abdel-Hadi, a consultant, who reviewed the reality and rights of women in academic institutions, explaining gender-based discrimination against women in universities and colleges, and presented the most prominent forms of violations of women’s rights in academic institutions.

Abd al-Hadi touched on the results of the study “The Reality of Academies in the Gaza Strip” and the study of “The Main Needs for Improving Women’s Rights in Academic Institutions and the Tools and Mechanisms that Support Combating Discrimination Against Women” issued by the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) during the past three years.

During the two workshops, the participants discussed how to address the rights and reality of women in academic institutions using the media and social media platforms. The participants presented a set of qualitative ideas for media and digital works and outputs that contribute to addressing these issues from a human rights and gender perspective.

Kholoud Al-Sawalmeh, Projects Director at the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC), indicated that these workshops came as part of the activities of the project “Encouraging Interventions to Promote Women’s Rights in the Gaza Strip,” which is being implemented by CDMC for the third year in a row, in partnership with the German Heinrich Böll Foundation. This year, the project aims to combat gender-based discrimination against women in society and in academic institutions.a

It is noteworthy that the Development and Media Center (CDMC) is a development and media institution that invests and employs the media as a platform for democratic discourse, advocacy for human rights and citizenship, and the promotion of social justice, freedom and prosperity.