Zero tolerance for violence against women ... #SolidarityAcrossBorders
By MIFTAH
July 06, 2022

In light of the escalating rate of femicide in the Arab world, which recently claimed the lives of university student Naira Ashraf and TV broadcaster Shaima Gamal in Egypt, Iman Arsheed from Jordan, Palestinian engineer in the UAE Lubna Mansour, among many others, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy "MIFTAH" announces its unwavering support for all feminist movements, coalitions and activities calling for a general strike by women across the Arab world on 6/7/2022 and calls on Palestinian women to participate and express their opinion in rejecting violence committed against women.

For decades, Palestinian women have been subjected to the most heinous types of crimes and violations under Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, occupation and apartheid. They continue to be exposed to various risks due to the ongoing Israeli policies of demolishing their homes and displacing their families, nightly home raids that terrorize them and their children, and willful killings of women at Israeli military checkpoints.

Despite this large-scale injustice inflicted daily, Palestinian women are not exempted from the patriarchal culture and its violent and oppressive manifestations that are prevalent in our society and across the world. It treats them as second-class citizens, de-prioritizes their needs and legitimizes various forms of discrimination and violence against them.

Since the beginning of 2022, six Palestinian women have been murdered inside Israel, followed by the killing of two Palestinian girls in Nablus and Tubas. The perpetrator often evades accountability, as the local society provides cover and legitimizes such crimes. Every year, Palestinian women renew their call on decision-makers to put an end to the horrific series of killings against them. However, many laws that guarantee the protection of the dignity and rights of Palestinian women and their families are still shelved by the government under the pretext of the public mood rejecting them.

Here we are today, joining our voices to all feminist voices, along with all the oppressed groups in our Arab societies, to say enough is enough. It is time for us to stand united against this great injustice, and to combat all practices that rob Arab women of the right to life, devalue them, or justify their oppression. We reject all inherited cultural traits that perpetuate patriarchal authority to control the fate and decisions of Arab women and limit their independence and permit forms of violence and discrimination.

We call upon the authorities throughout the Arab world to stop disregarding women’s issues and to take the necessary measures to protect women from violence, by enacting a system of laws that guarantees safety for women and preserves their dignity and their right to equal participation in various political, economic and social fields, and by underpinning the principles of democracy and equality, the fight against all forms of discrimination as well as the criminalization of its practices.

We also call on Palestinian women to express their rejection of all forms of crimes and violence perpetrated against them, in the manner they find appropriate, whether through demonstrations and vigils in the streets and public spaces, on social media platforms, or a strike on paid or house work, in order to demonstrate the extent of societal rejection of all discriminatory and violent practices against women and to highlight the role of women in building societies and states.

http://www.miftah.org