Where Are the Women?
This article criticizes women's humanitarian organizations for their silence on the suffering of Israeli women in the face of Hamas terrorist attacks. The author notes that while these organizations have been vocal on issues affecting women in the Middle East, they have not addressed the rape, torture, public humiliation, and murder of Israeli women by Hamas. The article points out that organizations like the United Nations Women, Women for Women International, the Global Fund for Women, and others have not released statements on the matter, and those that have done so have done it vaguely, condemning sexual and gender-based violence without specifically addressing the situation in Israel. The author emphasizes the need for these organizations to speak out and support Israeli women who are facing extreme violence and violations of their rights.
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When Middle Eastern women are denied abortion, education, divorce, or driver’s licenses, women’s humanitarian organizations are on the front lines. Now that hundreds of Israeli women are being raped, tortured, publicly humiliated, and murdered by Hamas terrorists, the same humanitarian voices are silent.
United Nations Women, the U.N.’s entity for “women’s empowerment” last issued a press release on October 5. It was about providing women with technical climate-resilient farming skills. Women for Women International, a nonprofit that gives support to female survivors of war, has not released a statement on the terrorist attacks in Israel. The organization’s last post was a Maya Angelou stock quote: “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” Same with the Global Fund for Women — its last post was on October 6, about “LGBTQI-led groups, organizations, or networks in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal or Togo.” The Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Equality Fund (formerly the MATCH International Women’s Fund), Plan International, and the Women’s Refugee Commission have all been silent on Hamas’s terrorist attacks.
Organizations that acknowledge Hamas’s crimes against Israeli women do so half-heartedly. Equality Now commented vaguely on the “Israel-Hamas conflict” today:
As we witness the escalation of conflict in the Middle East, we condemn any use of sexual and gender based violence as a weapon of war, which is a grave violation of international human rights. All perpetrators must be held to account within the context of the rule of law.
The specific needs and vulnerabilities of women and children on all sides should be prioritized.
We highlight the importance of working towards lasting and sustainable peace through reinvigorated efforts via the Middle East Peace Process. This should be done in accordance with international law, with women involved at every stage.
Israeli women are fighting for their right to protect their children, protect their bodies, and sustain their lives. Women of the world who claim to care about global humanitarianism are watching terrorists burn Israeli girls alive, rip babies from mother’s hands, shoot children in front of their parents, rape women in the streets, and parade naked female bodies around Gaza — and they somehow can’t muster a word.
Credits: HALEY STRACK, is a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism and a recent graduate of Hillsdale College.
