Shirly Pinto (; born 15 March 1989) is an Israeli Deaf social-political activist, who served as Member of Knesset for National Unity.
Pinto is fluent in Israeli Sign Language as well as Hebrew and is one of the founders of .
Biography
Pinto was born to Deaf parents, and raised in the Krayot. Her mother is Deaf and blind, and part of the Nalaga'at theater group.
Pinto attended the Carmel Zvulun Regional High School in Kibbutz Yagur, electing to study graphic design and social science. She received a complete matriculation diploma, graduating with honors.
Pinto spent most of her childhood with her mother's parents, as well as with her signing parents. This way she acquired a full knowledge of two languages, Israeli sign language alongside Hebrew language, which gave her emotional strength and self-esteem between the two worlds. Since her childhood, she has seen the difficulty and lack of linguistic accessibility in her parents, who coped daily with the authorities and the general public. Pinto's life was also a daily struggle because of a lack of awareness in the public. When she grew up, she decided to devote her life to changing this reality of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
At the age of 18, despite being exempted from compulsory military service, Pinto enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. She served in the Israeli Air Force Technical Corps. After the initial two-year service, Pinto continued as a career officer, and in 2009 she received an outstanding medal from the Air Force commander and was recognized by President Shimon Peres for her exceptional service.
In 2011 Pinto enrolled for a law degree at the Netanya Academic College and participated in the college's excellence program. During her studies, she participated in a delegation to the International Labour Organization at the United Nations in Geneva. In 2013 she worked as a paralegal for Judge Benjamin Arnon in Israel's Central District Court. In 2014 she interned for Member of Knesset Karin Elharar, handling legislation, public appeals and drafting policies to aid people with disabilities.
Since 2016 Pinto has been a lecturer for the studies of Sign Language Interpreting, at Bar-Ilan University.
In 2017 Pinto interned at the law office of Furth, Wilensky, Mizrachi and Knaani.
Public activism
In 2014 Pinto joined the "Shema for Education and Rehabilitation of Deaf and hard-of-hearing Children and Youth", where she was later employed as an instructor and an informal educational activity coordinator. Later she was appointed as a manager of the regional Gush Dan club. In May 2015, Pinto initiated an Israeli delegation to India, for assistance and legal-educational counselling to deaf children and youth in Indore.
In 2016 she established with other deaf founders. Its goals are to promote the status of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people who use sign language; to recognize the equality of sign language and spoken languages; and to create an awareness of the need for the Deaf to be accessible and accepted by the general public.
Pinto led the "I sign I am Equal" public campaign for changing the consciousness of the importance of sign language in public, and for promoting legislation of the Israeli Sign Language as a recognized language in Israel. In this campaign, she led an awareness week of the Deaf people, under the slogan "I sign, I am whole" (a Hebrew word play). The campaign swept hundreds of thousands, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett joined. Following the campaign, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was the first university in Israel to recognize Israeli Sign Language as an official language for Deaf people in Israel. In March 2017, the university hosted a ceremony in which Pinto presented a certificate of appreciation from the Center for the Deaf Studies to Rivka Carmi, the president of the university, for its actions.
In 2017, Pinto initiated a bill to make public service announcements on the television in sign language, which was led by MK Issawi Frej and MK Eitan Cabel. Later that year, in cooperation with the Ruderman Family Foundation, Pinto arranged a meeting with Academy Award winning actress Marlee Matlin with the community of the Deaf and hard of hearing people in Israel. Over 300 people attended the event, hosted at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.