At a United Nations conference on Monday, Israeli officials shared harrowing accounts of sexual violence, rape, mutilation and torture of women at the hands of Hamas during the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack. Now, women’s rights leaders and elected officials are sending a strong message to the United Nations about the need for action.
Tag: Israel-Hamas War
Rape as a Weapon of War: A Ms. Reading List
Feminists have long been sounding the alarm on the use of rape as a weapon of war—and firsthand accounts of what happened in Israel on Oct. 7 are spurring an urgent conversation once again, reminding us that the battle to secure justice for the victims of rape through war crimes prosecutions continues to this day. Below, we’ve curated some Ms. reporting from the last decade, to help readers better understand the feminist fight to designate rape as a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Access to Asylum Can’t be Treated as a Bargaining Chip in the Foreign Aid Debate
The Senate is feverishly debating the president’s $106 billion supplemental budget, which includes requests for additional aid to Ukraine and Israel, measures to counter China’s influence, significant humanitarian assistance funds, and border security.
Republican negotiators have chosen to use the urgency of the foreign aid requests to squeeze concessions from the administration and Democratic senators around the asylum process itself.
Combating Terrorism and Misogyny Together
In the grim landscape of global conflict, one element stands starkly at its core: the systematic oppression and subjugation of women. The narrative of international security and foreign policy ignores gender, overlooking the crucial role women play in the fabric of societal stability.
The war that begins with women’s bodies does not end there. To effectively counter the scourge of terrorism, we must reject the false dichotomy between human rights and national security. Instead, we must recognize that the protection and empowerment of women are not just moral imperatives but strategic necessities.
Israel-Gaza War: Threats and Attacks Against Women Journalists Covering the Conflict
Since the start of the Israel-Gaza War, a chilling tally of 40 journalists have been confirmed dead, with others either missing, detained or grievously injured. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is closely monitoring the situation on the frontlines and documenting violations against women journalists covering the conflict.
In the face of the growing threats and attacks against women journalists covering the war, it is imperative that we unite and take a stand for press freedom.
(This essay is part of the “Feminist Journalism is Essential to Democracy” project—Ms. magazine’s latest installment of Women & Democracy, presented in partnership with the International Women’s Media Foundation.)
Courage in Journalism Awards: Honoring Women Reporters Amid War, Censorship and Authoritarian Rule
The Courage in Journalism Awards show people that women journalists are not going to step aside, cannot be silenced, and deserve to be recognized for their strength in the face of adversity.
Meet the recipients of the 2023 Courage in Journalism awards.
(This essay is part of the “Feminist Journalism is Essential to Democracy” project—Ms. magazine’s latest installment of Women & Democracy, presented in partnership with the International Women’s Media Foundation.)
Eyes on Everywhere Else: Sudan, Pakistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Eastern Congo
The world is not confined to Israel and Palestine, and it should be possible to give that conflict the attention and outrage it deserves—which is a lot—while not treating other people as trivial or disposable because they happen to live in places that are not as geopolitically relevant to U.S. interests, or are not as psychologically or biologically tied to as many Americans and Europeans, or are not as connected to the American and European telling of history.
It does not have to be this way. We do not have to turn our eyes away.
Keeping Score: Georgia Upholds Six-Week Abortion Ban; Republicans Aim to Eliminate Women’s Bureau at Labor Department; Elections Reveal National Support for Reproductive Freedom
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This week: House Republicans’ plan to eliminate the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor; Southern states push discriminatory election policies; Scholastic book fairs affected by state bans on LGBTQ+ books and books about race; actor Suzanne Somers dies after career shaped by advocating for equal pay in television; Georgia supreme court upholds six-week abortion ban; 82 percent of mothers handle more childcare responsibilities than their partner; harassment and violence mounts against journalists in Gaza and American Jews and Muslims; National Domestic Violence Hotline reports surge in “reproductive coercion”-related calls; and more.
Who Pays the Price for Men’s Wars?
The people who are least responsible for this war—women, children, innocents of all kinds—are bearing the heaviest burdens of this war.
I’m on the side of the women whose children’s lives have been stolen, of the women who were told to flee but had nowhere to go, of the women who fled but were bombed anyway, of the women who don’t have clean water or medicine or electricity or a safe place to hide, of the women who like so many women are desperate down to the marrow to protect their children, of the women who cannot do that one singular thing, of the women scrawling names on their children’s limbs so someone might be able to identify them, of the women who are pulling their children’s bodies out of piles of rubble, of the women who lost their lives to a war they didn’t start and wanted nothing to do with.
Ms. Global: Iran Passes New Hijab Laws, Mexico Moves to Elect First Female President, Western Australia Decriminalizes Abortion
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
This time with news from Mexico, Iran, Brazil, Somalia and more.