On Wednesday, May 31st, Bay Area Women in Black will host an event entitled "Palestinian Lesbians Speak Out from the Occupation." The event will take place at 7:00pm at the Berkeley Friends Church at 1600 Saramento Street at Cedar, in Berkeley. The event will be a fundraiser for ASWAT.

Two Palestinian human rights activists from Israel will be speaking that evening. Rauda Morcos is the co-founder of ASWAT, an organization that broke the silence for Palestinian lesbians and the first Palestinian woman to publicly come out of the closet. She will address the work of ASWAT and the everyday conflicts she experiences between her national and gendered identity. Rauda is in the US to accept a distinguished award from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Nisreen Mazzawi is an environmentalist and feminist and is the Political Coordinator of Bat Shalom of the Jerusalem Link and Coordinator of the Women Empowerment Project in the Palestinian unrecognized villages in the north of Israel. She will speak about organizing Palestinian women under occupation.

ASWAT | Bay Area Women in Black | Kersplebedeb article about Rauda Morcos | International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission | Advocate Interview