On International Women’s Day, the Call for "All Women and Girls" Must Include Palestine

Happy International Women's Day, bitches.

Cue the onslaught of egregious marketing emails suggesting that I “celebrate” by buying their exploitative, overpriced shit.

Cue international demonstrations demanding equal pay, reproductive rights, and the prevention of violence against women.

Cue this year's official United Nations theme—

For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.

This year’s theme calls for action that can unlock equal rights, power and opportunities for all and a feminist future where no one is left behind. Central to this vision is empowering the next generation—youth, particularly young women and adolescent girls—as catalysts for lasting change.

Sounds good to me, UN, so long as “feminist future”, “next generation”, and “lasting change” includes Palestine.

Today I am thinking about the 12,000 women and 18,000 children murdered by the Israeli occupation—making up 70% of the total death toll in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Today I am thinking about the 645,000 children who have been robbed of school for the past 17 months.

Today I am thinking about the 2,000 women and girls acclimating to living with amputations in the midst of a genocide.

Today I am thinking of the 50,000 malnourished and dehydrated pregnant women who endured traumatic births amid rubble and bombings in the background.

Today I am thinking about the dozens of women arrested and tortured in Israeli detention centers.

Today I am thinking about the women and girls on their periods without access to privacy, menstrual supplies, or pain relief.

Today I am thinking about how lucky any woman or girl is to not be in survival mode 24/7, to feel safe enough to contemplate unlocking equal rights and power “for ALL”, to have existing infrastructure for pursuing opportunities.

I’ll end with the words of women's rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who in her 1971 speech at the founding of the National Women's Political Caucus said, “nobody's free until everybody's free”. And that's the truth.