5 months have passed since October 7. Today on #InternationalWomensDay
I am thinking especially of those young women still being held in Hamas tunnels and the horrors they suffer every day. I think of them as a woman. I think of them as a mother. On this International Women's Day, I also hope that some feminists who kept silence will finally think of them. It is our responsibility.
To all the women fallen because of rape as a weapon of war, to all the women who are suffering because of religious fundamentalism and discriminations, to all those kept hostages in forced marriages or in terrorists’ tunnels.
We are with you. 💕
Bring them home.
Assita
Muslim women in the U.S. make up 45% of the American Muslim population.
ISPU research identifies that Muslim women in the U.S. face religious and racial discrimination more than the general public. Despite enduring discrimination, most Muslim women (87%) report that they are proud to be identified as a member of their religious community and that their religion is a source of happiness in their life.
#InvestInWomen
Is this post appropriate for LinkedIn?, some might ask. This is an existential time and a defining moment for moral clarity so Yes. I urge my network to read this article. How are women & human rights groups silent and indifferent?
Co-Head, Restructuring | Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Dear Michelle:
And also Dear all other women and men, liberals and conservatives, feminists and otherwise.
The attached article made me so crushingly heartsick I could not progress today's planned post.
Before you read it, let me quickly take you back to 2014, when 276 Christian African girls were, in a brutal attack on their school in Nigeria, kidnapped by Boko Haram, another Jihadist organization just like Hamas. To this day, over 100 of them have never been found. And they were but a fraction of the thousands of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram and sold into sexual slavery.
I am sure most of us remember that.
And how Michelle Obama and other leaders - justly - mobilized the whole world to try to bring the girls kidnapped by Jihadists for rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery back to their families. Everyone accepted it as a given that the captive girls were being abused and raped. Women's organizations around the world joined the massive outcry and global social media campaign. #BringBackOurGirls went global and viral.
Have I ever been more deafened by the utter silence in the face of the unspeakable - by so many who piously purport to care so much? A silence so complete, so total, that it shakes my faith in humanity.
Sort of like the silence of ordinary Germans commuting to work while, 2 tracks away, Jews were being crammed into windowless cattlecars to be gassed and creamated. Or the silence - broken only by the sound of tearing paper - of the monsters who rip down the "Kidnapped" posters of Jewish infants, babies and children - denying and erasing their very humanity.
The Israeli girls who were not murdered on October 7 - many after being raped so brutally their bodies were literally torn apart - are underground in Gaza as Hamas hostages. I tremble and shudder to my core when contemplating their last 6 weeks.
Where is the Red Cross?
Where is the UN?
Where are the dozens (hundreds?) of anti-rape and womens' rights organizations?
Where is our former first lady?
It is hard to come to a conclusion other than the obvious one - when rape, dismemberment and slaughter is done to Jewish girls and women it somehow doesn't rate.
Maybe they should have named their 2014 campaign #bringbackourgirlsunlesstheyareJewish - in which case rape is ok - whether the girls are 12, 14 or 22, and until they have died from it. Or were shot in the head once the brave men of Hamas were done doing the unspeakable to girls.
Women's rights advocates - this article is for you most of all.
This important post by Marshall Huebner following the article Hamas - war on women. where are all the women's organizations? where is the Red Cross? where is Mishel Obama? strongly suggest reading carefully!!!!! https://lnkd.in/d-EbPyKB
Co-Head, Restructuring | Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Dear Michelle:
And also Dear all other women and men, liberals and conservatives, feminists and otherwise.
The attached article made me so crushingly heartsick I could not progress today's planned post.
Before you read it, let me quickly take you back to 2014, when 276 Christian African girls were, in a brutal attack on their school in Nigeria, kidnapped by Boko Haram, another Jihadist organization just like Hamas. To this day, over 100 of them have never been found. And they were but a fraction of the thousands of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram and sold into sexual slavery.
I am sure most of us remember that.
And how Michelle Obama and other leaders - justly - mobilized the whole world to try to bring the girls kidnapped by Jihadists for rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery back to their families. Everyone accepted it as a given that the captive girls were being abused and raped. Women's organizations around the world joined the massive outcry and global social media campaign. #BringBackOurGirls went global and viral.
Have I ever been more deafened by the utter silence in the face of the unspeakable - by so many who piously purport to care so much? A silence so complete, so total, that it shakes my faith in humanity.
Sort of like the silence of ordinary Germans commuting to work while, 2 tracks away, Jews were being crammed into windowless cattlecars to be gassed and creamated. Or the silence - broken only by the sound of tearing paper - of the monsters who rip down the "Kidnapped" posters of Jewish infants, babies and children - denying and erasing their very humanity.
The Israeli girls who were not murdered on October 7 - many after being raped so brutally their bodies were literally torn apart - are underground in Gaza as Hamas hostages. I tremble and shudder to my core when contemplating their last 6 weeks.
Where is the Red Cross?
Where is the UN?
Where are the dozens (hundreds?) of anti-rape and womens' rights organizations?
Where is our former first lady?
It is hard to come to a conclusion other than the obvious one - when rape, dismemberment and slaughter is done to Jewish girls and women it somehow doesn't rate.
Maybe they should have named their 2014 campaign #bringbackourgirlsunlesstheyareJewish - in which case rape is ok - whether the girls are 12, 14 or 22, and until they have died from it. Or were shot in the head once the brave men of Hamas were done doing the unspeakable to girls.
Women's rights advocates - this article is for you most of all.
To all the Israeli attacking feminists for not advocating for your victims, I ask that you please consider the following
Where were you when they complained about rape culture that required them exposing their dark history on social media?
Why aren't you protesting with them their right to abortion in America (which is what many of them are focusing on)?
Why aren't you helping them break glass ceilings in corporate, entrepreneurial, political, religious leaders so they can be in a position of real Power?
Why aren't you investing the hoarded wealth your American counterparts have to empower women led communities and enterprises? Research shows investing in women is like a tide that raises all ships
And perhaps most importantly, why aren't you making the same demands on Christians? They claim to serve the same God, Yahwei as the Jews. You might even show the world God is real and truly supports your people (but you would have to give up the idea of eradicating HAMAS and focus on making peace since Christians believe Yahwei is for everyone)
You might have better luck getting Christians to do something than feminists who are fighting all these issues because it is in their backyard 😉
#Dividedwefall#HumanRights75#Racialjustice#ingodwetrust
Co-Head, Restructuring | Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Dear Michelle:
And also Dear all other women and men, liberals and conservatives, feminists and otherwise.
The attached article made me so crushingly heartsick I could not progress today's planned post.
Before you read it, let me quickly take you back to 2014, when 276 Christian African girls were, in a brutal attack on their school in Nigeria, kidnapped by Boko Haram, another Jihadist organization just like Hamas. To this day, over 100 of them have never been found. And they were but a fraction of the thousands of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram and sold into sexual slavery.
I am sure most of us remember that.
And how Michelle Obama and other leaders - justly - mobilized the whole world to try to bring the girls kidnapped by Jihadists for rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery back to their families. Everyone accepted it as a given that the captive girls were being abused and raped. Women's organizations around the world joined the massive outcry and global social media campaign. #BringBackOurGirls went global and viral.
Have I ever been more deafened by the utter silence in the face of the unspeakable - by so many who piously purport to care so much? A silence so complete, so total, that it shakes my faith in humanity.
Sort of like the silence of ordinary Germans commuting to work while, 2 tracks away, Jews were being crammed into windowless cattlecars to be gassed and creamated. Or the silence - broken only by the sound of tearing paper - of the monsters who rip down the "Kidnapped" posters of Jewish infants, babies and children - denying and erasing their very humanity.
The Israeli girls who were not murdered on October 7 - many after being raped so brutally their bodies were literally torn apart - are underground in Gaza as Hamas hostages. I tremble and shudder to my core when contemplating their last 6 weeks.
Where is the Red Cross?
Where is the UN?
Where are the dozens (hundreds?) of anti-rape and womens' rights organizations?
Where is our former first lady?
It is hard to come to a conclusion other than the obvious one - when rape, dismemberment and slaughter is done to Jewish girls and women it somehow doesn't rate.
Maybe they should have named their 2014 campaign #bringbackourgirlsunlesstheyareJewish - in which case rape is ok - whether the girls are 12, 14 or 22, and until they have died from it. Or were shot in the head once the brave men of Hamas were done doing the unspeakable to girls.
Women's rights advocates - this article is for you most of all.
Well... this post saves me some time...
and for those of you who are sending me the cease fire and suffering of innocents etc. comments... I am going to assume you mean well so let me ask you...
Can you tell me why the press/media is so eager to demonize Israel with no fact checking, while taking any statement by hamas as gospel? especially when they have been caught lying -repeatedly- for press coverage?
Have you taken notice of all the staged "news" (with actors, pictures from years ago and other locations, fake blood etc) or do you just not believe Israel by default, because that's what everyone else is doing?
Can you tell me why the UN only seems to be concerned about the suffering of the "Palestinians" -what about the suffering in Israel?
Can you tell me why the UN is not working to get the hostages returned -NOT ONE WORD? Moreover, why have they not tried to see them and make sure they are alive and not being tortured?
Tell me why the UN is NOT concerned with the thousands of Arabs being persecuted in other Arab countries right now! far more than even hamas's made up number?
Why are the protesters who support hamas allowed to be violent, or deface/destroy property without being arrested? -Just to remind you, there have been DEATHS not making this stuff up...
Just take a moment and think about why this disproportionate (I know, but in this case it DOES apply) response exists ONLY for Israel. Try to have a bit of integrity at least and be honest with yourself.
Do you really know what is happening -I bet you don't- or are you just going along with the opinion/attitude of everyone else?
Co-Head, Restructuring | Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Dear Michelle:
And also Dear all other women and men, liberals and conservatives, feminists and otherwise.
The attached article made me so crushingly heartsick I could not progress today's planned post.
Before you read it, let me quickly take you back to 2014, when 276 Christian African girls were, in a brutal attack on their school in Nigeria, kidnapped by Boko Haram, another Jihadist organization just like Hamas. To this day, over 100 of them have never been found. And they were but a fraction of the thousands of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram and sold into sexual slavery.
I am sure most of us remember that.
And how Michelle Obama and other leaders - justly - mobilized the whole world to try to bring the girls kidnapped by Jihadists for rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery back to their families. Everyone accepted it as a given that the captive girls were being abused and raped. Women's organizations around the world joined the massive outcry and global social media campaign. #BringBackOurGirls went global and viral.
Have I ever been more deafened by the utter silence in the face of the unspeakable - by so many who piously purport to care so much? A silence so complete, so total, that it shakes my faith in humanity.
Sort of like the silence of ordinary Germans commuting to work while, 2 tracks away, Jews were being crammed into windowless cattlecars to be gassed and creamated. Or the silence - broken only by the sound of tearing paper - of the monsters who rip down the "Kidnapped" posters of Jewish infants, babies and children - denying and erasing their very humanity.
The Israeli girls who were not murdered on October 7 - many after being raped so brutally their bodies were literally torn apart - are underground in Gaza as Hamas hostages. I tremble and shudder to my core when contemplating their last 6 weeks.
Where is the Red Cross?
Where is the UN?
Where are the dozens (hundreds?) of anti-rape and womens' rights organizations?
Where is our former first lady?
It is hard to come to a conclusion other than the obvious one - when rape, dismemberment and slaughter is done to Jewish girls and women it somehow doesn't rate.
Maybe they should have named their 2014 campaign #bringbackourgirlsunlesstheyareJewish - in which case rape is ok - whether the girls are 12, 14 or 22, and until they have died from it. Or were shot in the head once the brave men of Hamas were done doing the unspeakable to girls.
Women's rights advocates - this article is for you most of all.
On this International Women's Day, I want to invite us all to take a moment to consider the ways that we offer differing value to different women’s lives- From the subtle acts of exclusion to explicit harassment and violence.
Today, I think of all the Palestinian women whose lives cannot be grieved.
And of all the Muslim and Jewish women around the world who are facing increasing hatred, Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism. And who wonder what it means for the value of their lives and those they love.
I leave you with a quote from Judith Butler, “One way of posing the question of who “we” are in these times of war is by asking whose lives are considered valuable, whose lives are mourned, and whose lives are considered ungrievable.” Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? 2015
On the 7th of October 2023, Hamas and other Islamist Jihadi groups orchestrated the deadliest pogroms since the Holocaust. The brutality encompassed the systematic rape and murder of women and men, even continuing in terror-tunnels beneath Gaza for the hostages stolen on October 7.
It is disheartening to confront these inhumane criminal acts. What shatters the soul is the profound silence emanating from women's activist organizations worldwide, including Denmark's KVINFO. KVINFO, a Danish government-funded NGO advocating for women's rights and equality, has conspicuously omitted any mention of the systematic rape, domination, and murder of Israeli women or men on its website.
Instead, KVINFO's front page, updated 23 days after the pogroms, features a one-liner statement expressing sympathy for all those affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pattern is unfortunately mirrored by the majority of female activist NGOs, both in Denmark and internationally. In a deeply cynical manner, these organizations evade their moral and human obligation to denounce the gang raping and murdering of civilian women and men simply because they are Israeli, because they are Jewish.
The overwhelming lack of moral clarity raises poignant questions. Can an NGO like KVINFO genuinely champion women's rights and equality when it fails to extend those rights to Jewish women and men? The difficulty lies in comprehending why it is so challenging to act with decency when civilian Jews fall victim to rape and murder by terrorists.
One might ponder whether this culture of rape is exclusive to Jihadists targeting Jews. It is not. The rape culture evident in similar chauvinist movements such as Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood extends to their fellow Muslim populations too, as well as Yazidis and Christians - and to tourists and reporters during the "Arab Spring" on El-Tahrir Square in Cairo. Hamas weaponizes rape, a heinous act that any civilized person and NGO should unequivocally condemn. Failure to do so legitimizes rape as a permissible act in conflicts, a notion that defies the principles of morality and humanity. Everyone is entitled to criticize Israel's war on Hamas. And everyone are ethically obliged to call out the rape of innocent women and men.
It appears obvious that only an immediate and total surrender by Hamas will lead to Gaza being genuinely free and safe for the Palestinians living there. A free Gaza will provide the Palestinian people in Gaza with the opportunity to build a democratic state of their own in peace and prosperity with its neighbors. Which they deserve - both the Palestinians and their neighbors. Enough of the bloodshed. Enough of the indifference. Enough of the lack of moral clarity.
This post mentions KVINFO. KVINFO is an example only and this post can not be construed as a post against KVINFO or the work it does.
#indifferenceisevil
"Enforced Sterilization:
China has a long history of asserting control over the reproductive choices of its citizens. Despite a loosening of restrictions nationally in 2016, China has taken a drastically different approach in Xinjiang. The state began imposing harsh penalties for violations of birth limits. It also implemented an aggressive campaign of mass sterilization and intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) implantation programs. Chinese government officials justify this by equating high birth rates with religious extremism. Chinese academics have argued that ethnic minority population growth threatens social stability and national identity.
Leaked government documents show that violations of birth limits are the most common reason Uyghur women are placed in a detention camp. Women have testified to being sterilized without their consent while in detention. Other women have testified that they were threatened with detention if they refused sterilization or IUD implantation procedures. In such a coercive environment, it is unlikely that any Uyghur woman can be said to have voluntarily consented to these procedures."
https://lnkd.in/gUYJwTZW
