“Divorced Arab women are excluded from the housing market and marginalized”

“It required mental energy to research such a topic,” Dr. Fahima Abbas, who researched divorced women in Arab society for the Adwa Center, tells ‘Dev’. The research takes an in-depth look at the housing supply for divorced women in Arab society and the conclusion is that these women can find suitable housing solutions in the free market is extremely limited. The study also found that even those who applied for assistance from the state authorities have difficulty receiving adequate assistance, and many of them deteriorate into poverty and distress.

The research took a long time. Many divorced women refused to cooperate. Finally, the survey is based on 43 women, most of them from the middle-upper class. “Going through a divorce is something not easy for the women. Maybe it’s a violent background, there might be a conflict between the couple, getting to a situation where we divorce but remain friends is something that doesn’t really exist in reality.”

Divorce more

In the last 20 years, the divorce rate in Arab society has increased. “From 2005 to 2019, the divorce rate in Arab society rose from 5.7 divorces for every 1,000 marriages to 8.4,” Abbas describes. According to her, the increase in divorces is related to several processes that affect society in general.

“More Arabs have integrated into the labor market and the level of education of women has also increased,” explains Abbas. “Women have become more aware of their personal freedom and their ability to decide whether or not to divorce, to leave the marriage framework, especially if the divorce framework was not so suitable for her and the stability she needs. So this process of personal freedom also affects women and gives them More power to really decide whether they want a divorce or not.”

Another aspect is the state’s withdrawal from the 1980s in the provision of social services, which affected Arab people and women in particular, according to Abbas. According to her, it was precisely the weak economic conditions that led to more divorces, because if in any case it is not good for the woman, the divorce can only be good, and if the economic situation is bad – she has nothing to lose.”

Abbas says that the social status and labeling of divorced or not divorced is significant in the middle class, which wants to maintain the appearance of ‘everything is fine’. Unlike the rabbinical institution in Israel, it is simpler to get a divorce among Muslims.

The lack of housing solutions for women drags families into criminal organizations

Crime and violence in Arab society are also linked to the issue of divorce in the study. According to Abbas, the Ministry of Housing provides rent assistance after three months to those who submit documents accordingly, and during this time the criminal organizations provide free housing to create a debt that will bind the divorced women to them. She adds that there are places that are controlled by criminal organizations, that build special buildings dedicated to divorced women and their children, which creates an environment that makes it difficult to get out of crime and continue to function normally.

“In the research, I referred to three circles: one circle of state policy – expropriation of land and discriminatory housing policy. The second circle – a free market policy that also affects Jewish society and makes it very difficult for women. It does not give them options to purchase houses because of the increase in prices. The third circle is It is more difficult for a woman to own a house, because there is a lot of expropriation of land and self-construction, and this means that the man builds the house and usually it is registered in the name of the head of the family, and the construction is done in the same compound, so after the divorce he cannot exercise. only his part and she receives financial rights but not construction rights.”

According to her, a woman should have solutions that will allow her to have a roof over her head immediately after the divorce. “Some women today are in the middle class, and we have an increase in education and employment, but we are talking about women who receive low wages. 63% of Arab women are employed in education and social work compared to 27% of Jewish women, so their wages are low.”

Additional housing solutions, such as public housing, are almost not available in Arab society. “You only have 0.3% of an Arab society that lives in public housing. Regarding renting or buying, initial capital is required which is not always available, and the increase in housing prices throughout the country has an effect.”

In the complicated situation, Abbas describes progress on the issue, and gives an example of how in the past participation in the rent was not given if you lived with the family, while today you receive assistance if they have separated.

The summary of the study states that the starting point for divorced Arab women seeking to find adequate housing following the divorce is more challenging: “Divorced Arab women suffer from an oppressive combination of social structures, which operate discriminatory, exclusionary, oppressive and marginalizing mechanisms, this in view of their dual belonging to the Arab minority in the Jewish state and to the group of women In a patriarchal society, and in view of a neoliberal policy that allows them to find solutions independently in the ‘free market’, into which they enter from the beginning in a disadvantaged position, alongside shrunken social services.”

The study gives policy recommendations that can help divorced Arab women:

• Promotion of outline plans for the establishment of new Arab settlements and new residential neighborhoods in Arab settlements with quality municipal services.
• Increasing the representation of women, including Arab women, in government bodies, in order to integrate gender thinking into the planning of Arab settlements.
• Updating the list of “small settlements” and “large settlements” to which the Ministry of Housing examiners refer for rent assistance, which affects the amount of assistance.
• Raising the maximum income threshold for receiving rent assistance.
• Increasing the rent assistance amount of the Ministry of Housing, and adjusting it at least to the increase in housing prices. Meanwhile, the assistance provided to women victims of violence must be increased.
• Providing rent assistance also to Arab divorced women who return to live in their parents’ house or move to the house of other relatives. This is especially in view of the fact that some of them pay rent in these cases as well.
• Increasing the inventory of apartments for public housing in Arab settlements and Arab neighborhoods in mixed cities, and designating some of the apartments for single-parent women.