After more than 100 days
of Israel's war on Gaza, there have been many instances where my heart felt
like it sank to the bottom of my stomach. The images, videos, and testimonies
that we have seen in more than 100 days are sometimes unfathomable to watch or
even witness; I fear that sometimes our brains become so desensitized. It was
never normal to see a father holding the parts of his child in a bag, or women
weeping at the loss of their loved ones, or the one that still keeps me
wondering about how so much feminism has failed the Palestinian cause.
I remember a particular
moment where I even questioned my feminism and what it means to be an
Arab-Muslim woman when I heard of a Gazan woman who went through IVF only to
say farewell to her son, highlighting that life in Gaza can be taken away at
any moment.
And this is where the
West has continuously gone on to fail women worldwide. It seems as if it is a
woman’s issue until it comes to Palestinian women, and god forbid, a Muslim
woman’s issue.
Palestine is a feminist
issue, and feminism cannot be equated with Zionism. It is incompatible.
So, what is colonial feminism?
According to the Palestinian Feminist Collective, colonial feminism refers to Western and colonial discourse and
politics that deploy the language of liberating women to justify invasions,
genocides, military occupations, resource extractions, and labor exploitations.
And here is where it
gets even more interesting: colonial feminism thrives on depicting Palestinian
women as helpless victims in need of saving from their own culture, society,
and religion. Since October 7, the graveyard that Gaza has become is justified
in this context because the occupation is arguing that Hamas is putting its
civilians at risk. Therefore, killing over 30,000 civilians, 70 percent of whom
are women and children, is deemed acceptable.
The West has a
fetishization of othering itself from other women. In 2023, 'Hijabophobia' was
at an all-time high. Muslim women all over the West are subjected to much
scrutiny for practicing their faith, and automatically, a piece of cloth
becomes their barrier to feminism. The West fetishizes the secular Muslim
woman, the one who removes her headscarf and denounces her religion, which,
therefore, makes it easier for a woman to be killed in Gaza.
World Hijab Day takes place annually on February 1 to take a stance against raising awareness
of Islam and women and, of course, educate about women's rights.
In her article, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," American writer and professor Audre
Lorde explained, “White women ignore their built-in privilege and define women
in terms of their own experiences alone; then women of color become ‘other’…
which prevents the literary work produced by women of color from being
represented in mainstream feminism.”
This cannot be even more
true now. After 100 days, we are seeing women bear the brunt of Israel’s war on
Gaza. According to UN Women, out of every ten
people killed in Gaza since October 7, seven have been women or children. It
added that two mothers are being killed every hour, and nearly one million
women and girls have been displaced.
The Israeli occupation
is taking away everything from Gazans and violating every sort of international
law. Under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, it
is being shown. The far-right female Knesset members are not forward-thinking,
nor are they feminists, as they serve the patriarchy through their own selfish
demands, or in this case, to serve the colonial patriarchal system that values
death over life, all for the sake of taking land that was not theirs to begin
with.
However, as Lorde
mentioned in her essay, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) women who are serving
in this genocidal war are being celebrated for being women who are ‘fighting,’
and mainstream media, such as the New York Times,
are failing to address its liberal agenda by focusing on these war-mongering
‘feminists.’
In an article released
on January 19, in the New York Times ‘Israeli Women Fight on Front Line in
Gaza, a First,’ the story revolves around one of its 'Captains', Amit Busi. At
23, she is one of Israel’s star token propagandists who is fighting not only innocent
civilians but society, the ‘traditionally macho culture,’ who told her she
could never make it.
The Israeli occupation
is once again doing all it can to uphold its image of being the only free and
democratic state in the Middle East. It has done this by pinkwashing and purplewashing, highlighting that it supports same-sex marriages, and now, that it supports
women in combat roles.
The article stated that
one of its occupation forces has ‘no time for feelings,’ and that fighting
feminism in its ranks is part of a shared mission.
And while one of the
infamous female captains of its ranks says she does everything to avoid
civilian casualties, it is just so hard because of ‘Hamas.’
Expressing her ‘hope’ to
have children someday and praying they will not have to experience conflict in
Gaza, this statement seems to contradict her earlier remarks. Does it imply she
envisions a future where Gaza is eliminated to safeguard her children? The
question arises: How does this war-mongering feminist combat soldier genuinely
protect civilian casualties? It appears to be part of a propaganda effort to
evoke sympathy for women in the occupation while simultaneously disregarding
the plight of women in Gaza.
She added that the
occupation needs her there, and of course, they do because, in the public
opinion battle, Israel has lost, and Israel continues to lose. It will do
anything it can to keep up its public image and justify the number of civilians
killed.
Women at the forefront
of Gaza are not something to be celebrated; these women are simply serving the
patriarchy, a far-right cabinet that includes all men, but no women.
It is time to start
looking at Palestinian women with the same lens through which we look at all
other women in the Western world. Palestinian women are not oppressed;
Palestinian women are occupied, and any woman who supports the occupation
cannot be considered a feminist, point-blank.
Buying into a version of
feminism that does not exist, which is liberating Palestinian women from the
clutches of Hamas, ignores the very real and grave harm they have been
subjected to.
According to a recent
report by UN women, the grave numbers highlight just a glimpse of what is
happening in Gaza currently.
- The only functional maternity hospital in northern Gaza is expected to run out of fuel.
- Over 24,620 Palestinian civilians have been killed, 70 percent of whom are women and children.
- Two mothers have been killed every hour.
- At least 3,000 may have become new widows and women heads of households.
- At least 10,000 children have lost their fathers.
There are no safe spaces in Gaza because the Israeli occupation bombs so-called safe spaces.
- Gaza’s pregnant women endure C-sections without anesthesia.
اضافة اعلان
If you identify as a
feminist, the time has come to recognize that the issue of Palestine is
intrinsically tied to feminism. We can no longer turn a blind eye to the
75-plus-year ongoing occupation.
Palestinian women, like
women anywhere else in the world, deserve equal opportunities and rights.
Resistance against the occupation is an integral aspect of the broader struggle
for gender equity.
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