Wars are all about violence and it’s gendered! Who starts them, why and what they want, is grounded in patriarchy and male power. Every woman knows that. Even if watching from afar, that inherent fear of what happens when male violence is unleashed crawls into our being. Women who have experienced war first-hand know it best. Every war, every time, women know the harms that are done, that those harms are gendered – and ultimately, that it is women who must deal with the consequences.
It’s the same, no matter where you are and what uniform, or none, is worn by the perpetrator; sexual violence, rape and gendered atrocities are going to happen. We know this because conflict-related sexual violence is not a new type of violence, it is a continuum of violence inherent to patriarchy. For decades we as feminists have worked hard to have this recognised and for there to be reparation and accountability for the survivors. In our struggles, we have refused to accept the role assigned to us by international law, which defined us from the male gaze: weak, vulnerable, in need of protection, our “honour” defined more by our bodies and our sexual organs than our own rights to dignity and autonomy. Men rape women to attack and humiliate other men and break communities. As feminists, we deny that any women’s enduring sexual violence is outrageous because they are ‘our women’. No woman proprietarily ‘belongs’ to any man or any state or any community. Each woman has her own personhood, her own rights. It is those rights which are violated when any woman is sexually assaulted by any man before, during or after armed conflict.
Feminists Did That!
We have done so much to smash the idea of women as the property of another man – a patriarchal norm present across nations and states. We have worked tirelessly to inform, reform and educate. Brilliant feminist lawyers have worked with brave and dignified survivors of rape during the Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide to change international law: rape as torture, as a crime against humanity, as a constituent part of genocide. We all pushed to build the UN Security Council resolutions to recognise that conflict-related sexual violence had to be addressed and stopped. Even as we did so we knew this was a chimera. War is a patriarchal tool, and wars will never be safe for women: but we will have justice! The resolutions use the language of obligation towards states and militaries. They call for command responsibility and prosecution. They recognise the rights to reparation and health care. Feminists did that.
We are now in the midst of a political conflict because of the atrocities in Israel and we should add, very obviously, in Gaza. I don’t know how many women have been subjected to conflict-related sexual violence there. I do know that it would be incredible if there were none. But, what I believe, will not bring justice to women survivors. Belief alone will not bring accountability. The law can bring that and for the law to work there must be objective investigation, it requires a survivor-centred approach which, thanks to feminist engagement with the UN Security Council, is now deemed to be central to the process.
We Will Not Be Instrumentalised
Feminists did all of this and we did it together, not as women from one state or one political or religious belief, we did it together because it involves all of us and must apply to all of us. Today, that solidarity has been put at risk. Women’s bodies are used as objects to be violated during war and then used again for propaganda purposes in the political sphere, to “justify” ever more violence. The misogyny of this is both obvious and appalling. It must be called out and resisted.
Over Israel and Gaza, Feminists and feminist organisations are put in literal crosshairs for allegedly not being in solidarity with women survivors of Hamas’ attack. This is a gaslighting strategy, trying to pull feminists into the world of militarisation and retaliation.
We don’t have full accounts of what happened on 7 October and if there is to be justice then those full accounts are needed. The allegation of conflict-related sexual violence, as part of overall atrocities committed by Hamas, must be properly investigated and adjudicated. Israeli women deserve justice. It is not for the current government of Israel to deny Israeli women that right because of its own agenda.
Justice cannot be achieved unless we do it right and to do it right we have to hold on to what we know and what we have collectively worked for: the law and the structures are there and must be applied, for all women affected by conflict. The Palestinian women in prisons, Palestinian women subjected to the horrors of the bombing campaign, and indeed, Ukrainian women, women in Sudan, in Ethiopia…that long list of geographic locations where our solidarity is needed. This is what feminism is and what feminism demands.
As feminists, we cannot be reduced to silence by the violence unleashed on social media and very publicly against individuals and organisations by parties to conflict. We have made enormous progress, and we cannot let all of that be broken by those who seek to divide us. When we have been strong together, we have prevailed. Now more than ever, that solidarity is needed. Patriarchy kills, we need to assign it to history.
