Paul Calvert talks to Madleine Sara, professor at Bethlehem Bible College, about founding A Pot In His Hand Ministries, and the challenges facing women in Arab culture.

I am a Palestinian Arab and Christian woman who was raised into thinking that my role is at home. When I was a child this is what my parents knew, but then I found people who supported me, like my husband, who really believed in women and believed in me. Suddenly I rediscovered myself as a woman.

I can say that I have succeeded doing mothering and being a wife and also succeeded in doing other things outside the house.

From my own experience and my profession, I want to reflect the same thing to other women. I want to encourage them and encourage the men in society that women will be growing, developing, and using their skills and rising up on the ladder of other professions.

It will affect the next generation and us as a society, a whole society.

Paul: Is society a pressure for the women here?

Madleine: Yes, there is a kind of a dehumanizing of women if I can use that word. Just being considered as less and as a property. It's Islamic culture, and I know it's not just in Islamic culture, because we know it's the same in Judaism in some places. It depends on how religious people are, but it does sound like it has been this way for generations and even in the time of Jesus and before the Old Testament, and it's still here.

I know that in other places, other societies it's changing, but if we look at the whole picture it's still there. Some have progressed and have been taking huge steps, but some are really struggling to take the small step of being involved in work outside of the home or taking an important position in an organisation.

Paul: Is there pressure to leave the land for the children's sake?

Madleine: There is a pressure on the Palestinian side a lot.

I teach at Bethlehem Bible College and there I see students all the time. What I usually sense is that there is no motivation to study or to pursue a degree, because people are hopeless and they think "I get the degree but then I'm limited in work, so it's hopeless."

People have this sense of hopelessness and it's hard to follow your dreams and ambitions in life. So there is a kind of pressure on people to leave the land because options and chances for us to grow or develop, or for a better life are more available in other parts of the world, like the United States or Europe.

Paul: Do some women come for counselling and what sort of needs do the women have?

Madleine: A lot of women come to counselling.

I see how much this field has opened up for women, because of the media, because people are more educated and because more women are pursuing a degree than they used to.