Palestinian Women need not apply : On Liberal feminism’s selective outrage
We've hit the 4 month mark of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. 4 months and more than 27,000 dead.
As this genocide continues to be livestreamed, it has brought to the stage the performance that is western moral superiority. As international law is made a mockery of, a veil, shall we say, has been lifted. One even more specific form of hypocricy that has been exposed is that of western Liberal Feminism.
The barbarism towards the women and children of Gaza has been horrifying. From women giving birth on streets, c-sections without aneasthisia, pregnant women being bulldozed alive, tent scraps being used as sanitary towels, the list is endless. Every form of hardship a woman can experience has been unleashed on the women of Gaza. And yet, with such well documented suffering, feminists continue to stay silent. By choice. Because as with all forms of western secular ideology, it is just another wing of western imperialism. One, rather insidiously, with the veneer of liberation and protection.
As women in Gaza are shaving their heads due to the water shortage imposed by Israel as collective punishment, where are western liberal feminists shaving their heads in solidarity. There isn’t a scissor in sight. Self proclaimed feminists who were defiantly cutting their hair in solidarity with Iranian women last year have not uttered a single word. Celebrities that wore ribbons on red carpets in support of Me Too are nowhere to be found. Pregnancy and motherhood organisations who expressed their solidarity for Ukranian women have seem to have also disappeared. It’s all rather telling isn’t it.
Seeing people who have otherwise been so vocal on a plethora of other women’s issues/social justice issues, who have proved that they have the capacity to research and investigate as oppose to swallowing mainstream narratives, are now silent on the issue of Palestinian genocide. This issue is too complicated or there isn’t enough "objective" information out there to warrant supporting the Palestinian plight. Suddenly we all need Phd’s to understand the topic. It all begs the question; are Palestinian women not women deserving of dignity and care?
You see, we’re not going to attribute this silence to some form of innocent mistake, a luxury that only white liberals seems to be given. I have heard the word 'naivete' being attributed to this selective concern. And you know what, no. It’s not an innocent oversight. Not when Palestinians are using what little they have to show you what hell Israel is inflicting o them, showing you their pain and their dead. How privileged that silence can be attributed to something as innocent as naivete, whilst Muslims are required to condemn from the moment they wake up, lest their silence is complicity. No, this is intentional. The silence is a choice, an active choice and therefore willing participation. The silence is an active choice via inaction, the basis of which derives from the fact that Muslim women, Palestinian women, are not worth the hassle. With the suffering of Palestinian women documented like no other genocide in history, it is still not enough to evoke speaking out. And so we’re reminded, Liberal white feminism is not objective, in that it does not aim for the elevation of ALL women. Palestinian women are excluded. And this is because Palestinian women do not conform to the secular liberal ideology that umbrellas white liberal feminism. It’s the same reason liberal feminists will be at the front of queue when the issue is hijab, but no where to be found when Israeli soldiers are talking openly of rape of Palestinian women as routine. The rights of women will conveniently be invoked when it’s Western foreign policy invading to save weak, forcibly covered Muslim women from big bad Muslim men. It’s just a more gendered manifestation of the white savior complex.
You know, at least there are people who are consistent in their apathy, I can appreciate that. But the ones who are more selective in their outrage, that's insidious, because it reveals something deeper, that some lives are just more important than others.
And so we learn a valuable lesson, especially as Muslim women; that we do not need the approval, advocacy and dare I say faux concern of liberal white feminists. We’ll advocate for ourselves and elevate each other.
