International Women's Day: Woe to a world that does not see

Today, International Women's Day comes to my mind, and in a big way, but today it comes to my mind with great sadness, and with even greater pain, given what women are suffering, whether in the Gaza Strip or in the camps in the northern West Bank these days. I say to myself, how can this world remain silent, ignore, and turn a blind eye to what women are suffering from, a severe shortage of their basic needs, which are stipulated by heavenly and earthly laws alike?

My reproach is to the Arab and Islamic nation as it watches with its own eyes the Palestinian woman being oppressed, humiliated and deprived. My reproach is to those who take the Qur’an as their method and rise up in anger when women demand their freedom and rights, and then slink like ostriches into their holes when women’s rights are violated and their lives and futures are destroyed.

My reproach is to the world, or what is falsely called the first civilized world, which sees but does not see, watches but does not feel, does not move, and does not bat an eyelid at what women suffer in Nour Shams, Jenin, Jabalia, the beach, Nuseirat, and everywhere, at the hands of soldiers armed with fire, hatred, and malice towards the Palestinian woman, the origin of our story, its shepherd, and the waterer of its eternal, immortal beauty.

I imagine, contemplate and grieve that we are in the twenty-first century, and the rights of Palestinian women are still being violated as never before in the most horrific, bloody and destructive human experiences. This is not a reproach to time nor anger at the neutral geographic data that grants humanity a deeper dimension in awareness, conscience and humanity. It is a reproach and anger at those who write the history of these days and excel in explaining the data of human development in the world, progress, development and launching into greater horizons for the future. I wonder, what kind of future is this that the world and women are striving for that deprives them of their right to live and practice their great existential role in a world that preserves their dignity, rights and needs.

Instead, the Palestinian woman was robbed of her safe home, and the home of displacement was thrown in her face, without providing for her most basic needs, and without caring about her most basic dreams, feelings and concerns. The occupation has gone too far in its crimes of violating the most basic rights of women, children, youth, elderly and the Palestinian human being in all forms of their livelihood, time, life and place, in length, breadth and height. It has deprived them of their right to move, their right to learn and their right to walk a safe path, and has imposed on them the thugs of our time, its Tatars and Mongols. But unfortunately, this occupation has found a protector, a shepherd and a legislator in the far reaches of the earth, who turn a blind eye to its crime and continue their day with indifference that rises to the level of a crime.

On Palestinian Women's Day: Your Patience is Our Eternal Hope

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