Rape Is Not Resistance: Women's Rights in a Post-Oct. 7 World | Opinion
Opinion by Heidi Basch-Harod
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On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, raped, gang raped, murdered, and mutilated women and girls in front of their friends and parents, shot them in cold blood, and then set their bodies ablaze. Women and girls were also abducted to the Gaza Strip with videos capturing their continued sexual abuse as they were paraded through the streets, bleeding and broken. These atrocities were filmed by the terrorists on body cameras and then broadcast across the world on social media channels and apps, moments after being perpetrated.
Whatever you think of the Palestinian cause, rape is not a form of resistance. Rape is a war crime.
Yet, in the days and weeks following Oct. 7, the decision of international women's rights organizations to acknowledge and condemn the acts of sexual violence committed by Hamas, or not, revealed an astonishing and upsetting chasm amongst the ranks of those allegedly championing the cause of global gender equality. The most prominent example of silence was given to us by UN Women, which failed to make a direct statement condemning the rape committed by Hamas terrorists, or to explicitly name Israeli women as victims of sexual violence in this war.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/rape-is-not-resistance-women-s-rights-in-a-post-oct-7-world-opinion/ar-AA1kNbEk?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=25e26f560c03412ebb8992a18c3294b5&ei=74
