In November 2023, the French feminist organization La Parole Des Femmes initiated a discussion labeling the October 7th attacks by Hamas as "feminicide." This claim, spotlighting the gendered violence allegedly inflicted on Israeli women, remains controversial due to the lack of concrete evidence supporting the allegations of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza starkly reveals a broader gendered crisis, underscoring the limitations and biases within Western feminism.
The Gendered Crisis in Gaza
By late November 2023, UN Women reported that two-thirds of Gaza's 14,000 casualties were women and children. With hospitals and essential medical infrastructure destroyed, reproductive rights have faced devastating setbacks, including a 300% increase in miscarriages. Women endure childbirth without anesthesia, while maternal malnutrition leads to a severe shortage of breast milk for infants.
Palestinian women also face systemic abuses beyond the humanitarian crisis. Accounts of sexual violence, torture, and inhumane treatment of female prisoners amplify the horrors. Many women are detained without due process, subjected to beatings, deprivation of basic necessities, and other forms of degradation. Arbitrary executions and targeted killings further exacerbate their plight, with social media flooded with evidence of these atrocities.
Western Feminism’s Cognitive Dissonance
Despite the stark gendered violence in Gaza, Western feminism has largely remained silent or selective in its advocacy. This absence highlights the movement's Eurocentric framework, which often excludes women of color and women from the Global South.
Palestinian women defy Western feminism's expectations by rejecting its narrowly defined ideals of liberation. They prioritize anti-colonial struggles over issues like equal pay, challenge the perception of the hijab as oppressive, and embrace large families as a form of resistance. This divergence disrupts the dominant narrative, leaving their struggles sidelined by mainstream feminists.
Moreover, the instrumentalization of feminism to justify military interventions in the Global South creates a legacy of distrust. This dissonance alienates women of color and reinforces skepticism toward Western feminist solidarity.
Bridging the Divide
The crisis in Gaza presents a crucial opportunity for Western feminists to redefine their movement. True solidarity requires challenging the patriarchal and imperialist structures that perpetuate global injustices. This includes scrutinizing the military-industrial complex and its role in enabling violence against Palestinian women.
With pivotal elections approaching in the EU and US, Western feminists must build meaningful alliances with women of color and the Global South. This involves acknowledging their grievances, understanding their distinct struggles, and addressing the historical appropriation of feminism to legitimize oppression.
Gaza’s tragedy calls for introspection and action—an invitation for Western feminism to broaden its scope, deepen its critique, and stand in genuine solidarity with women worldwide.
This blog critically addresses the gender specific effects of the ongoing Gaza crisis and explores how Western feminism has largely failed Palestinian women in dealing with their specific struggles. The blog highlights the silence or selective attentions within Western feminist circles, particularly concerning the on-going atrocities that women in Gaza experience. The author goes on to argue that most forms of Western feminism are Eurocentric and therefore alienate women of color and women from the Global South from true solidarity. An important question then begs: how is Western feminism supposed to change so that it can hold a more inclusive perspective of women's experiences around the globe, especially in conflict zones like Gaza? Another question is how one can avoid…
Your blog did a great job of highlighting a specific angle of the failed advocacy of the West in regards to Gaza. This is a really important issue that needs more voices, with there being very few, unfortunately, from the West. There have long been critiques of Western feminism from scholars such as bell hooks as well regarding the lack of intersectionality in these movements as only Caucasian voices are amplified. This comes at the cost of the women of the global south as this specific brand of feminism becomes the poster for all types of feminism. The different experiences of women are generalized and, thus, suppressed such as in the case of the Gazan women. There does need to…
Your blog highlights a critical and often-overlooked intersection between global crises and the limitations of mainstream feminist discourse. The portrayal of Western feminism's selective advocacy is particularly compelling, exposing a Eurocentric framework that struggles to accommodate the diverse realities of women in the Global South.
I appreciate how you address the gendered impacts of the Gaza crisis with specific, harrowing statistics, such as the rise in miscarriages and the lack of maternal healthcare. This approach underscores the urgent need for a global feminist solidarity that transcends borders and cultural biases.
Your critique of the instrumentalization of feminism to justify military interventions is powerful, pointing to a painful legacy of distrust. The call for Western feminists to reevaluate their alliances and…
This blog does a really good job of specifying where the western feminism falls short in the case of Gaza. The critique of it though, i think dates way back in time. The inherent problem with Western Feminism that leads it into differentiating between women of color, class, caste etc. is the process of “otherisation” that Namneka discusses. In every case, Western feminism "otherises" and separates from itself anything that does not fit the ideal, western narrative.
The women of south for example make an attempt to decentralise this hegemonic gender theory. According to Fennel, they de-universalise categories like that of the “Third-world woman” or the “girl-child”. These problematic and stubborn narratives about the women in south have been embedded…