Rabat – In the tapestry of human history, women have been the silent victims of all the ordeals going on around them. In the bygone past, this was excused by various factors like ignorance, extreme patriarchy, the practice of slavery, etc.
Today, as the first quarter of the 21st century is ending, women in the world have reached unprecedented achievement in rights protected by the power of law.
In such a context, March 8 celebrates the Day of the Women their accomplishments and contributions in the progress of civilization. Symbolic presents are thus offered to women to acknowledge their roles and their inspiring struggle for equal rights since the dawn of history.
Unfortunately, the prevailing narrative surrounding the triumphant celebration of March 8 is dystopian on at least one tiny little zone on the earth. For the past six months, the agony endured by Gaza women amidst the turmoil of war and death is beyond any verbal description.
Since mid-October 2023, war’s indiscriminate violence and destruction has inflicted immeasurable suffering on Gazans, especially on women. The incessant death toll has exceeded 30000 with a majority of women and children. Women in Gaza die of bombardment or of grief.
They die physically or die in heart for the loss of dear ones, grappling with the trauma of witnessing loved ones perish before their eyes. They are collateral damage in an unbalanced conflict. Their bodies –dead or alive- constitute desolate shapes in the scenes of complete destruction we have been watching for half a year so far on international TV channels while having our meals or waiting for a favorite match.
Acute malnutrition is one of the alarming results of the war Israel has been mercilessly waging on Palestinians for several months under harsh conditions of cold, rain, expulsion, and the like. Generalised famine or malnutrition, to say the least, continues to ravage women all over the war-torn, relentlessly bombed Gaza Strip.
Gaza women caught up in Israel’s systemic oppression of Palestinians
In times of scarcity, women bear the arduous task of ensuring the survival of their families, often sacrificing to feed their children. In a world where food is produced, consumed, and thrown in excess, women in Gaza are starving due to trivial interstate arguments about allowing aid access.
Irrespective of constant fear, bombing, death, starvation, and systemic oppression is an additional plight women in Gaza face constantly. Be they laywomen, journalists, activists, or else, they find themselves at the intersection of multiple forms of offense, harassment, and threats and endure the dehumanizing effects of racial prejudice.
This year, in the age of artificial intelligence, in the age of peak civilization we witness heartless massive killings of people around the clock in Gaza, Palestine.
At a time when women pilot planes, visit space, own giant businesses, lead countries, or simply live in absolute comfort and receive red flowers as a token of love or in recognition of their status in society, women in Gaza are massacred live before the bare eyes of a seemingly plastic-eyed world.
