First female Druze doctor in Israel awarded prize for breaking barriers |
JULIS, Western Galilee — Dr. Nadia Khir, who was awarded the Habama Shelahen (Hebrew for “Their Stage”) prize for women in leadership roles in Israel on Sunday, didn’t set out to be a trailblazer when she became the first ever female Druze doctor in Israel.
Speaking to The Times of Israel in her living room on the edge of Julis, a Druze village in the Western Galilee, Khir, 58, recounted how, as a young girl, she heard “stories about women bleeding to death or having miscarriages because they wouldn’t go to a male doctor.”
“This affected me so much, and I wanted to help,” said Khir, who works as a gynecologist in four different health clinics in the Galilee.
In traditional Druze society, men are generally not permitted to touch women, except for first-degree relatives, so examinations by male physicians is not allowed.
Today, there are approximately 40 female Druze doctors in Israel, Khir said, but in the early 1990s, there were none. She was the first.
“Choosing Dr. Nadia Khir means choosing a woman who broke barriers not only for herself, but for an entire generation of women in Druze society,” said a spokesperson for the Habama Shelahen prize in a statement. “She succeeded in changing deeply rooted social perceptions and proved that education, leadership, and personal fulfillment can strengthen an entire community. Her impact continues to this day.”
The event, sponsored by Dr. Miriam Adelson and hosted by Israel Hayom, honored one woman in each of several fields: community engagement and contribution, security, health, education, economy and entrepreneurship, young leadership, culture and sports.
Wearing a modest, floral blouse and long skirt, Khir offered her guest grapes, apricots, and pomegranate juice and spoke about her challenges of becoming a physician.
She recounted that when she was growing up in Peki’in, 32 kilometers (20 miles) away from Julis, her biology teacher suggested that she become a........