By Iqbal Suleiman
For decades the Palestinian woman was depicted as the “Weeping Mother”. This was the stereotypical image that was embedded in the public mind. A helpless woman with a headscarf, tears rolling down her eyes with no agency, no mind of her own and subservient to men. She was pitied and scorned simultaneously. Pitied for her undeniable suffering as she wept beside the dead body of her child. Scorned because she was perceived to lack the depth, courage, intelligence and independence to be like women of the west. This stereotypical image was constructed by the mainstream western media.
Twenty two months of Genocide has shattered the Islamophobic construction of the Palestinian woman, as videos and images of Palestinian woman appear on phone screens, every hour, and every day for twenty two months depicting Palestinian women in their lived experience. What do people of the world see?
They see Palestinian woman who wear scarves and those who don’t wear scarves both speak and articulate their thoughts with eloquence. They see both the traditional and the modern woman deeply rooted in their faith and firmly committed in their struggle for self-determination and a Palestinian State. They see women who are journalists and photographers who bravely dodge bullets and lose their lives whilst reporting on the genocide whereas not a single male let alone a female journalist from CNN, BBC, France 24, Sky News or any other western media outlet has entered Gaza to report. They read the words of Palestinian female poets, artists and bloggers that capture their hearts and imaginations. They see health care workers and first responders who are killed as they try to save lives. They see female doctors who could work anywhere in the world but chose to live in Gaza and sacrifice their lives while treating patients in hospitals that are bombed to smithereens. They see grandmothers walking for miles, displaced more than twenty times over. They see unarmed women scuffle with Israeli soldiers. They see female educators creating classrooms in the rubble bringing smiles to little children with dust on their faces. They see Palestinian women in military gear who are part of the resistance. They see little girls tending to the wounds of their parents.
And of course, they also see the weeping mother whose heart is shattered when her baby is killed by Israeli bullets, bombs and starvation. She is not just weeping, she is living. She goes on despite the hole in her heart. She takes care of the other orphaned children. She gives hope to the fight for freedom. She speaks out against the genocide. She shouts at the TV screen “Where is the world, where is human rights, where is women’s rights, Where is the world’s conscience”. She stays strong and keeps her family together. When all of Gaza is broken physically and psychologically, she does not break. They see expressions of defiance in the faces of Palestinian women. They see beauty in defiance.
Woman in Gaza experience a violation of their rights that is gender specific such as sexual violence and violation of maternal health care rights. The Israeli genocide has violated every woman’s right imaginable. From the right to giving birth, to the right to access sanitary products, the right to bodily dignity, the right to food, the right to mental health, the right to maternal health care and most significantly the right to life. UN Women reported on 19 May 2025 that “28 000 women and girls were killed since October 2023, one woman and one girl is killed every hour by Israel”.
The U.N has provided credible reports of Israel violating the rights of Palestinian women. In the U.N press release of 17 July 2025 dealing with violence against women and children, Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem stated “The scale and nature of the crime inflicted on women and girls by Israeli forces are so extreme that existing concepts in the legal and criminal framework can no longer adequately capture or describe them”.
The U.N reports that approximately 70 000 menstruating women in Gaza have no access to menstrual hygiene products such as sanitary products, soap and clean water. Video footage from the ground in Gaza show desperate women using torn cloth from refugee tents as a substitute for sanitary products. There are no bathrooms and therefore no privacy or dignity for women. This is utterly cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that Israel is exacting on Palestinian women.
Every day, on average, Israel kills approximately 28 Palestinian children. This is like killing a classroom of children every day. Every day 28 women in Gaza, watch their children deliberately killed through Israeli bullets and starvation. International Medics have reported how baby formula is confiscated from them by Israeli soldiers to perpetuate the policy of baby killing through starvation. Malnourished mothers who are unable to breast feed their babies have to watch their babies starve to death by the Israeli created famine.
On the 13 March 2025, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on The Occupied Palestinian Territories (COI) concluded that “Israel has systematically used sexual, reproductive and other gender based violence against Palestinians since October 2023”. The U.N report of February 2024 found that “Palestinian women and girls were subjected to wartime sexual violence”. The report documented the rape of Palestinian woman and also found that women and girls were stripped naked by male Israeli army officers. Israeli soldiers had also photographed Palestinian women in “degrading circumstances” and uploaded the photographs online. Israel has unlawfully detained hundreds of Palestinian women. Some were kept in a cage in the rain and cold. Videos have gone viral showing Israeli soldiers wearing lingerie of Palestinian woman and calling them “sluts” and “whores”.
These Israeli actions against Palestinian women and girls is what makes Reem Alsalem to describe Israeli conduct as Femi-Genocide. She says “It is the intentional destruction of their lives and bodies for being Palestinian and for being woman”. Alsalem also poignantly noted that rape is under reported by Palestinian women because of reprisal concerns.
Despite the misogynistic violence carried out by the Israeli State on Palestinian women, the gatekeepers of woman’s rights and the Western Feminists have been largely silent. Rasha Abushaban, a Palestinian human rights worker says “And what of the injustices faced by women in Israeli prisons, including reports of rape, harassment and humiliation? As a displaced woman struggling to access basic necessities like privacy, sanitary products and adequate physical hygiene facilities, I can’t help but question why the global feminist community seems to overlook our suffering? Are we not civilized enough to be seen or heard”.
America and Europe have enabled this Femi-Genocide and have not raised a finger to defend the rights of Palestinian women. How is it that those who are so loud in championing for the rights of Muslim women to not wear headscarves are silent when bullets splatter the brains of 28 000 women and girls in Gaza? Of course, it is the fundamental right of a woman and a woman alone to decide what to wear and how to dress. But it is hypocrisy to fight for the right of a woman not to wear a headscarf but not fight against bombs falling on the heads of poor woman living in tents.
There is a deafening silence from powerful western woman like Hillary Clinton and others in positions of power and authority. There is complicity in the Femi-Genocide from the E.U Chief Ursula Von Der Leyen who has not even sanctioned Israel. Why does a leader from the Democratic Alliance in South Africa, Glynnis Breytenbach in support of Israel perch her white face next to the white face of Israeli President Hertzog who at the beginning of the Genocide stated that there are no innocent Palestinians. Why has the former DA chief of International Relations, Emma Powell try so hard to whitewash the Femi- Genocide by leading the recent trip of right wing parliamentarians to support Israel? Is it simply racism? Are Palestinian women lesser humans? Are they considered animals as they have been described by Israeli leaders?
Palestinian women through their lived experience have demonstrated to us that they are the most courageous, fearless, righteous, creative and steadfast human beings in the world today. Despite the unbelievable suffering that they have experienced, they remain patient and strong. They are the core and the centre of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. They are educators, carers, lovers, artists, writers, doctors, poets, intellectuals, comedians, bloggers, mothers and freedom fighters. They resist, sacrifice and love all at the same time in a way that is singular to Palestinian women. As long as a single Palestinian woman lives, the struggle for freedom will persist.
As we celebrate women’s day in South Africa, let us remember our responsibility to fight for the rights of women experiencing Femi-Genocide in Gaza.
Iqbal Suleiman
Suleiman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and Research Associate: Media Review Network