This photo essay assesses the strategy of using communication for social change (CFSC) to give voice to Palestinian youth, especially young women. Hosted on the Communication for Social Change Consortium (CFSC Consortium) website, the photos and narratives included emerge from the conviction that public and private dialogue is critical to peace in the Middle East. To that end, author Birgitte Jallov examines how 3 organisations in Palestine are addressing issues of democracy and governance by engaging in communication-centred processes through which people identify problems together, make decisions, and develop community-based solutions.

As Jallov illustrates here, one means of fostering this CFSC process is the offering of education and/or training in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and the media for change. For example, Birzeit University, outside Ramallah (a Palestinian city in the West Bank), offers academic programmes leading to Bachelor's degrees in journalism and radio, and the independent Media Institute based at this university offers short-term courses in television, radio, and print journalism. A key strategy has been to encourage women's participation in these courses, which traditionally have included only male students.

Having undertaken this training, members of the non-profit organisation Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation (PYALARA) began creating television productions, such as the weekly 2-hour "Allie Sowtak" ("Speak Up"), which more than 300,000 Palestinian children and youth watch. Programmes like this one are designed to raise awareness about challenges facing young Palestinian women, such as early marriages, honour killings, and cultural traditions that block their access to education and careers. In workshops, young men and women associated with PYALARA engage in face-to-face debates, deciding together how the nature, history, and implications of the problems can best be presented in TV programming for their peers. Jallov claims that, "through this process of planning the presentation of challenges in their own lives to others, they undergo an effective process of consciousness raising - the analysis has immediate impact on their own understanding of themselves in their community and their reality." One PYALARA representative quoted here indicates that "The women are often really shy when we start working. But as soon as we share information and experience in a secure workshop setting, the girls unfold and become much more confident and clear about their own priorities." The idea is that this kind of approach to media creation can not only educate viewers, but encourages a growing number of young Palestinian women to pursue journalism as a career.

Jallov implies that these women may find inspiration and opportunity, also, through the media houses in this country that are seeking to provide more women-focused content and more jobs for women. For example, Wattan TV, in Ramallah, produces weekly programmes featuring the lives and occupations of women from the villages - with an emphasis on portraying women and men as equals. Jallov concludes that, "Through these good examples some station managers begin to realize the importance of providing space for women: giving a space for debate and providing women with a voice" - by, for instance, including women as hosts, guests, and experts on political talk shows focusing on women's rights and lives.