Ortal Ben Dayan

Ortal Ben Dayan was born in 1981 in Kiryat Shmona

Ben Dayan was born in Kiryat Shmona in 1981 to a family of Moroccan origin. Her parents divorced when she was 12, and at 15 she moved in with her grandmother. After being expelled from Danzinger High School, she studied at the kibbutz school in Kfar Blum, where classmates called her a slur for Mizrahi women.

She served in the army as a soldier-teacher and worked with youth groups. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem she earned a BA in international relations and sociology in 2006 and an MA in sociology and anthropology in 2010, both with honors. Her sexual harassment lawsuit against the university changed how Israeli universities handle such complaints.

She was spokeswoman of the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition in 2009 and 2010. From 2010 she worked with Naamat and with Achoti, where she ran an anti-racism project and a women's writing program. She later wrote reports on state culture budgets for the Libi BaMizrah coalition.

In 2013 she opened a vintage fashion shop in Neve Sha'anan in south Tel Aviv. She founded the Women in Yellow, who patrolled the area at night in 2014 and 2015 to prevent violence. In 2014 she took part in the reality show Big Brother, and in 2016 she married journalist Hagai Matar.