Western Feminism’s Disregard for Women’s Rights in Gaza

The Israeli genocide in Gaza will be forever remembered as the moral collapse of the West.

Following Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on 7 October, any moral or legal framework to which Washington and its Western allies were supposed to be attached was suddenly abandoned.

While the death toll has broken every record of brutality in recent human history, Western nations continue to talk about “Israel’s right to defend itself”, deliberately ignoring the fact that Israel lost that right as soon as it engaged in this prolonged aggression from 1948.

As the death toll increases dramatically every day, more than 70% of victims in Gaza are women and children, according to figures published by UNICEF, which Reem Alsalem—the U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls—described as “relentless and particularly alarming.”

These women and children find themselves today in makeshift camps, in deplorable hygienic conditions with very difficult, if not impossible, access to food, drinking water and medical care.

Multiple sociological studies have demonstrated that in times of crisis or war, women are always on the front line. Their living conditions are the first to deteriorate; they are more exposed to violence, and they have less access to relief and assistance services, not to mention extreme physical and mental stress.

At the time of the 7 October attack, many Gazan men were in the West Bank working. The closure of the borders prevented them from returning home. The Israeli invasion that followed reinforced the isolation of their companions who remained in Gaza.

These women, often mothers, are now the only ones to bear the entire burden of family survival in an uninhabitable area under constant attack, where the shortage of food and the situation of famine that it causes have become the norm.

In Gaza, 90% of hospitals were targeted by Israel and intentionally destroyed. However, since the start of the war, more than 20,000 babies have been born in Gaza, according to UNICEF figures as of 19 January 2024.

At Rafah Hospital, which receives the majority of women about to give birth, more than 60 women, malnourished and dehydrated, give birth every day. Few received medical attention due to a lack of access to care. 

Their pregnancies having not been monitored, the risks could not be assessed, which makes any treatment particularly difficult, with sometimes tragic consequences for the mother or the newborn. Medical teams on site deplore an increased risk of infection as well as a growing number of premature births.

Humanitarian staff also note an increased number of miscarriages, the causes of which can be multiple: lack of care, stress and anxiety, unsafe water, lack of food, polluted air due to bombing, etc.

The U.N. reports that C-sections had to be carried out without anaesthesia. In addition, the lack of places pushes young mothers to go out two to three hours after giving birth, only to find themselves on the street again and without adequate equipment to welcome a newborn.

In the Gaza Strip, hygiene products, especially menstrual products, have become a luxury. The lack of sanitary facilities and sanitary napkins leads women to take risks with their health, such as taking pills with harmful side effects to avoid having their period and layering underwear wrapped in paper or rags.

According to aid workers in Gaza, menstruating women are forced to use scraps of tents in place of period products.

Riham Jafari, an Action Aid worker based in Bethlehem, said: “Imagine having to manage your period with no period products, toilet paper or soap, and no chance of being able to wash yourself. 

“This is the reality for hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Gaza right now,” she added.

At least two women had been raped, and others had been “subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault”, according to a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights published last February.

The report reveals that Palestinians in Israeli prisons endure daily violence, and Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians since the start of the war. 

Experts also reported strip searches of women by male Israeli officers and the dissemination online of degrading images of detained women by Israeli soldiers.

The report said “hundreds” of Palestinian women and girls have been arbitrarily detained since 7 October and subjected to “inhumane and degrading treatment,” including sexual assault, beatings and deprivation of food, medicine, and hygienic products.

“We often speak about continuums of violence, and in many countries, the rise of femicide, along with moves to control and exploit women, pose ongoing serious challenges,” said Reem Alsalem.

“The credibility of the international human rights system has been undermined by the double standards of governments, particularly those that claim to prioritise gender equality, women’s rights, and the rights of children in conflict. In the case of Palestine, allegations of sexual violence levied against Hamas have been weaponised by some to undermine calls for accountability for Israel’s crimes against Palestinians in Gaza,” Reem added.

While the Israeli government had rejected accusations of sexual violence against Palestinian female detainees, calling them “contemptible and baseless allegations,” the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, Matthew Miller, stated that the Biden administration was aware of these allegations and had asked Israeli authorities to investigate. 

This is the usual response from American authorities whenever they are questioned about crimes and violence committed by their Israeli allies.

Western hypocrisy concerning women’s rights in the Middle East is glaring, especially when comparing the treatment of women in places like Afghanistan, France, Sudan or Gaza. The West is quick to condemn the Taliban’s oppressive policies, which deny Afghan women the right to work, raise their voices, or even show their faces.

Yet, when it comes to Gaza, where women are denied fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, access to healthcare, and protection from violence, the outcry is noticeably absent. 

Western feminists, who claim to champion women’s liberation, often disregard the oppression of Palestinian women, particularly when Israel or Western-backed forces perpetuate these abuses. 

This selective advocacy reveals a troubling double standard: women’s rights are only championed when they align with political interests, leaving millions of women in Gaza and across the Middle East to suffer in silence.