Anat Thon

Women Across Frontiers: What made you start doing what you are doing today?

Anat: I am a lawyer. I try to promote women and gender issues through legislation because I believe that if we achieve gender equality our society as a whole will be much stronger.

WAF: What or who motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

Anat: My grand grandmother, Sara Thon. She was one of the first feminists in the Israeli feminist movement, many years before the establishment of the state of Israel. She was one of the very few women on the international committee, which was the government at that time. She worked hard to promote the rights of women to be elected, and was very active in empowering and advancing women from disadvantaged backgrounds.  I was raised learning about her life and her story always inspired me. Alas, the reality today is that 100 years on, there is still a lot of work to do. What keeps me motivated on a daily basis is my wish that my children shall live in a better and more equal society.

WAF: What do you consider your biggest struggle or your biggest challenge?

Anat: I feel that our struggle as Israelis is that we need to have a different understanding of the concept of ‘security’. We need to understand that our wish to be safe in a way that enables us to realize our national and personal dreams will not come through a military approach. We need to advance other values — justice, equality and social solidarity. I believe that Israeli women from all backgrounds can be a powerful motor in advancing these principles.

WAF: What is your biggest achievement or your most transformative moment?

Anat: It was in 2010, when Itach-Maaki, the organization I worked with, petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice about the composition of the Turkel Committee, which had been formed to investigate the Gaza Flotilla raid. We petitioned because not even one women had been appointed to that committee. Our petition led to a public discussion about the importance of having women in positions of decision-making power.

WAF: What is your ultimate goal or your biggest dream?

Anat: My goal is to be able to ensure, together with my partner Sagi, that our children will have a future where they will live to hear the sounds of music instead of sirens; a future where they look at their neighbors and friends as equal to them no matter what their backgrounds are; a future where they can shape their life according to their wants and not according to the accepted paths of their gender.

WAF: What is your favorite quote?

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” — Virginia Woolf