Scienceהנרייט דהאן כלב

Henriette Dahan-Kalev

Henriette Dahan-Kalev is an Israeli political scientist who founded the Gender Studies Program at Ben Gurion University and is one of the founders of the Mizrahi feminist movement.

born 1947Founding Ben Gurion University's Gender Studies ProgramMizrahi feminist theoryCo-founding AhotiResearch on Wadi Salib and the Black Panthers

Born: 27 April 1947, Morocco
Occupation: political scientist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Founded: Ahoti - for Women in Israel (2000)

Henriette Dahan-Kalev was born in 1947 in Morocco

Dahan-Kalev was born in Morocco in 1947 and came to Israel with her parents in 1949. The family first lived in the Sha'ar Aliyah immigrant camp, then in Pardes Hanna, Tiberias and Holon. When she was 10 they moved to Jerusalem.

She earned all her degrees in political science at the Hebrew University. Her master's thesis dealt with intellectuals in politics. Her 1992 doctorate studied the Wadi Salib events and the Black Panthers, and how state institutions discriminated against Mizrahim.

Her research covers political thought, feminist theory, gender and politics, globalization and postcolonialism. She was a research fellow at Oxford University and a guest at Somerville College. She founded and headed the Gender Studies Program at Ben Gurion University and advised the IDF and the Be'er Sheva municipality on women's issues.

In 1994 she was among the Mizrahi feminists who disrupted the 10th Feminist Conference at Givat Haviva, protesting the exclusion of Mizrahi women. She then helped found the organization Ahoti. She has served on the board of B'Tselem and the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition, and received the Women Creating Change award in 2000.