“Are Palestinian women not just like you and me? Are Iranian women and children not deserving of dignity like you and me?”
Apsana Begum MP spoke at a recent online ‘Women for Palestine’ rally on Monday 9 March as part of solidarity events organised with International Women’s Day. Read an edited version of her speech or watch the event in full.
As International Women’s Day (IWD) was celebrated yesterday all around the world, women in Gaza continued to be killed and starved, while being denied medical treatment and aid.
So many months and years on, I still ask, how many of these women have been killed by UK-made weapons?
For those who escaped death, they spent another International Women’s Day fearing for their lives, trying to survive the brutal reality of this “war on women” — a term coined by the United Nations.
A “war on women” — Violence Against Palestinian Women — supported and facilitated by the UK and the US.
The US who, along with Israel, is now undertaking illegal military action against Iran – it is inevitable that it is women and children who will suffer the most.
This is all while the US and Israel encroach upon Lebanon – a country where so many Palestinian women and children fled to over the decades, as well as countries as far as Cuba. The US and Israel’s illegal wars and gangster politics happen under the guise of their so-called Board of Peace.
This is a relentless, nightmarish reality of violence and destruction. Millions of women in Palestine are displaced and denied the most basic of essentials. And the number of malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza continues to rise.
Women currently in Rafah and the West Bank continue to be forced to live in deplorable and subhuman conditions.
Women are facing starvation, not because food is not available, but because of a decision to impose collective punishment — one that has deliberately stopped food getting to those who desperately need it.
As we pay tribute this weekend to our rich history of women’s struggles against oppression and challenge ongoing gendered injustice,
And as we look to a future of women’s liberation, we must be clear that this means: liberation for all women.
Like so many in my East London constituency who have stood with the Palestinian people in solidarity over decades, I continue to ask: Are Palestinian women not just like you and me? Are Iranian women and children not deserving of dignity like you and me? Do Lebanese women deserve to be bombed in wars they didn’t ask for and bombs they did not create?
The hypocrisy and double standards are plain for us all to see. I know that people all over are disturbed by the devaluation of Palestinian lives and Palestinian dignity, along with the unchecked Islamophobia we are all currently witnessing.
It is now more than two years since the International Court of Justice’s plausible genocide ruling. And yet, it still goes on and on and on.
Friends and comrades, I close with this: Sisterhood isn’t sisterhood if it does not mean standing in solidarity with ALL women, including Palestinian women, who continue to need, now more than ever! The plight of women in Gaza and the West Bank is a feminist issue.
We will keep calling for a permanent ceasefire. Because all those who enabled and facilitated the genocide through the sales of arms must be held to account. Because there must be an end to the dispossession and oppression of Palestinian people.
Solidarity.
- Apsana Begum is the Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse – you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
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