אחותי - למען נשים בישראל (ע"ר)

Achoti (Sister) – for Women in Israel was founded in the year 2000 by feminist social activists to unite women from the various ethnic, national and social backgrounds throughout Israel to promote tolerance, equality, human rights, peace and dignity. Achoti is a grassroots Mizrahi feminist movement aimed at addressing the needs of women who are not part of Israel’s social hegemony and whose voices are seldom heard in the public discourse: women from disadvantaged, disempowered and low-income socio-economic groups, and distressed women on the cultural and geographic peripheries of Israel, including women from Mizrahi origin, Ethiopians, Russian speaking, Palestinians, Bedouins, migrant workers, asylum seekers and others. Achoti's agenda is tailored to the unique-cultural context in Israeli society by celebrating the diversity of Israeli women from different cultures and origins. The movement's goal is to promote issues of social, cultural and economic justice from a Feminist viewpoint that combines ethnicity, identity, social class, nationality and gender. Achoti works on behalf of disempowered women and seeks to push to the forefront the issues women face on the cultural and geographic peripheries of Israel, such as unemployment, low wages, discrimination, exploitation, and the lack of access to resources, such as, legal aid, courses, information, etc. Achoti addresses with issues women face by focusing on the root causes and creating unique and innovative strategies towards issues of economic security, class, gender, war and peace, which are all woven into the fabric of social change at its most basic level. Achoti is a pioneer in the work of setting an alternative agenda within Israel and the surrounding region and facilitates nationwide grassroots projects with the explicit goal of supporting cooperatives of women that foster the self-empowerment of women and income generation. Achoti is also committed to promote building an economic infrastructure based on cooperation, principles of fair trade and the cultivation of harmonic and caring partnerships. Since its establishment Achoti movement have changed the field of feminism in Israel greatly, by incorporating women from non-hegemonic groups and bringing up the different oppressions from which Mizrahi, Ethiopian, Palestinian, refugee women suffer, and how often their oppression is made by other women from higher status. Issues such as feminist economy, working class women and intersectionality have entered into the feminist field in Israel due to the work of Achoti which have changed dramatically the feminist discourse in Israel as well as the activities and fields that are considered as feminist issues in Israel.