Today, as the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we are reminded of the solemn duty to confront violence and injustice wherever it occurs. Yet this year, the day is marred by a deafening and wilful silence—a refusal to acknowledge the horrors inflicted on Israeli women during the October 7 Hamas massacre. This silence, coupled with the broader global indifference to the suffering of women across the Shia Crescent, is not just a moral failure but a betrayal of the very principles this day seeks to uphold.
On that dark day, Israeli women were not merely caught in the crossfire of conflict; they were deliberately targeted by Hamas terrorists in acts of unspeakable brutality. Reports of sexual violence, abductions, and systematic dehumanisation emerged. These were not incidental atrocities but calculated acts designed to instil terror. And yet, the international response has been characterised by an almost eerie absence of outrage. Many who claim to champion women’s rights have chosen to look away, while some have gone so far as to justify or minimise these crimes in the name of political expediency.
This silence echoes the broader global apathy towards the plight of women living under regimes of terror across the Shia Crescent. In Iran, women are beaten, imprisoned, and murdered for daring to remove their hijabs or demand basic freedoms. In Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, women have been erased from public life altogether, barred from education and employment. Yazidi women suffered years of enslavement and unimaginable abuse at the hands of ISIS. In Gaza, women endure oppression under Hamas, whose brutality is masked by its self-proclaimed role as the "voice of Palestine."
And yet, the world turns a blind eye. The atrocities committed against these women are too often excused or ignored, as long as the perpetrators drape themselves in the cause of "resistance" or invoke the banner of anti-Zionism. This selective morality has created a grotesque double standard, where some victims are worthy of sympathy and others are sacrificed on the altar of political narratives.
The international community’s failure to condemn this violence is not only hypocritical but dangerous. It emboldens the perpetrators and reinforces the impunity with which they operate. Worse still, it signals to the victims that their suffering will remain invisible, their voices unheard, and their rights unworthy of defence.
On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we must ask: where is the global outrage for Israeli women raped and murdered by Hamas? Where is the solidarity for Iranian women risking their lives to defy tyranny? Where is the condemnation of regimes and terror organisations that use women as tools of oppression and violence?
The truth is stark: much of the world is willing to turn its back on these women as long as doing so serves a convenient political narrative. This moral abdication betrays the very essence of this day. Violence against women is not a partisan issue. It cannot be justified by ideology, nor can it be selectively ignored.
If we are to take the principles of this day seriously, we must demand justice for all women who suffer violence—whether they are Israeli mothers mourning their murdered children, Yazidi girls seeking freedom, or Iranian women defiantly removing their hijabs. We must reject the dangerous relativism that shields perpetrators and silences victims.
Let this day serve not as a hollow gesture but as a rallying cry for universal justice. Let it remind us that violence against women—wherever it occurs, whoever commits it—must be met with unyielding condemnation. Anything less is a betrayal, not only of the victims but of the values we claim to uphold.
The fight to eliminate violence against women must be unflinching and unapologetic. Only then can we truly honour the purpose of this day and ensure that no woman, no matter where she lives, is left to suffer in silence.
