this year, international women’s day marks five months since the beginning of the genocide in gaza. that’s twenty two weeks, or 153 days of american-funded death.
today, in armenia, women and girls will receive flowers and small gifts from the men and boys in their lives, whether their relationships are romantic or familial or friendly. maybe we, out here, can symbolically send (and ask the men in our lives to send) a gift to the women in palestine: flowers cost around the same as an esim card, and money towards a family’s evacuation fund can literally save a life.
an armenian woman i follow on instagram, nataloush, made a post a year ago celebrating armenian women fedayeen, an arabic word meaning “those who sacrifice themselves.” the fedayee were women who took up arms from the 1880s till the 1920s to defend their people against the ottoman’s genocidal regime. these armenian women took up arms, disguising themselves as men and leading all-women units during battle.
a quick google search revealed that palestinian women, too, were part of organized fedayee militias since 1948. it’s bittersweet, learning about this through line of women fighters in the middle east and the caucuses, fighting against occupying forces that are now strategic allies of the western world. these same western powers invade a country under the guise of liberating their women from oppression yet demonize anyone resisting occupation.
in an article for al jazeera, maryam aldossari criticises western feminists’ silence over the deaths in gaza, highlighting a specific type of feminism that is more guided by identity politics rather than the true tenets of liberation for all women.
I’ve come to realise that their brand of feminism perceives Palestinian women as oppressed primarily not by Israel or any other outside force, but by Palestinian men. … Thus, these “feminists” buy into Israel’s claims that its assault on Gaza will help “liberate” Palestinian women from the clutches of Hamas, and ignore the actual, grave harm the war has been inflicting on them.
… [Colonial feminism] justifies invasions and occupations under the guise of aid, portraying Palestinian women as mere victims in need of rescue, while simultaneously denying their right to resistance.
maryam calls this “a form of feminism imbued with colonial and imperial prejudices and preconceptions.” it recalls the memorable phrase, coined by gayatri chakravorty spivak in 1985, of “white men saving brown women from brown men.”
Shatila Camp filmed in May 2021, right after the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza via @baladbox on instagram.
right now, the women of palestine don’t need to be saved from the men of palestine (the men rescuing children from the rubble, the ones being massacred while waiting for flour deliveries to feed their families) but they do need to be saved from the men of israel (the ones who’ve obliterated their homes, left 60,000 pregnant women malnourished, and murdered 25,000+ women and children). it’s for the palestinian women that we maintain our resolve for a ceasefire, for freedom from their deadliest oppressors.
this year, i dedicate women’s day to bisan, to palestinian women, revolutionary women, the women who carry the weight of their nation on their shoulders, the ones who sacrifice themselves for their people.
where there’s been injustice, there’s been women fighting for a freer world. no woman wants to live a life — or wants to bring her children into a life — under occupation. it’s on us, in the safety of the heart of the empire, to keep demanding for our sisters to be free. next year, inshallah, the women and girls of gaza will mark the day in a free palestine.
*a friend here on substack,
wrote a poem about what it means To be a Gazan during Ramadan, the holiest month for Muslims, which will begin on march 10. Please give her piece a read.this is an incomplete list of the women endangering their lives (in gaza) or sacrificing their careers (here in the heart of the empire) to bring us news of what’s happening to their people. the least we can do is fight alongside them.
in gaza
outside gaza
Noura Erakat (professor, attorney)
Hala Alyan (poet, professor, psychologist)
Salma Shawa (fashion designer turned organizer)
Rashida Tlaib (US congresswoman)
donation links
☎️ esims for Gaza - buy + send digital simcards to Gazans to help them communicate with loved ones
🚨 evacuation funds - donate to one or several funds to evacuate Gazans into Egypt, many of whom have to pay thousands of US dollars to “fixers” to arrange their entry