In its campaign against gender-based violence, UN Women has all but ignored Hamas’s atrocities. Hostage families are speaking out.
In its campaign against gender-based violence, UN Women has all but ignored Hamas’s atrocities. Hostage families are speaking out.
U nited Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) chief Sima Bahous opened the organization’s annual “16 Days of Activism” campaign with a speech in which she described the myriad threats that women face internationally: in Haiti, for example, “where women face gang violence including pervasive sexual violence”; in Sudan, “where reports of mass rape have become the norm”; in Ukraine, “where women are increasingly first responders, yet receive minimal funding.” The 16-day campaign is “an opportunity to revitalize commitments, call for accountability and action from decision-makers,” UN Women says. And it exists to hold “perpetrators accountable and [establish] zero tolerance of violence against women and girls.”
Women and girls are also in danger in the Middle East, Bahous added in her speech, “in Lebanon, in the occupied Palestinian territories, in Gaza, where women and girls are being bombarded, killed, and living on the brink of famine.” Women, she said, “are still being held hostage in Gaza.” “The war and the killing must end, the hostages must be released, and aid must reach those who need it.”
Delivered on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, that speech was one of the few times in recent memory that Bahous has publicized the plight of the remaining Israeli hostages — 13 of whom are women, and at least three of whom are dead.
Their names are Shiri Bibas, Romi Gonen, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Emily Tehila Damari, Liri Albag, Doron Steinbrecher, Ofra Keidar, Inbar Hayman, Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger, and Judih Weinstein Haggai (a U.S. citizen). Terrorists murdered Haggai, Hayman, and Keidar on, or shortly after, October 7 and have refused to return their bodies to Israel. The rest of the women are believed to be somewhere in Gaza, likely dozens of meters underground in Hamas tunnels.
Yarden Gonen, Romi’s eldest sister, has advocated her sister’s release since October 7. A nurse, Yarden has been shocked by the ways in which the medical and international women’s communities have ignored the female hostages, she told National Review.
“I feel betrayed from the medical world and from the women’s world in ways that I never imagined that I would feel — and I don’t know how other women, or how other medical professions, are not feeling the same way as I do,” Yarden said. “I don’t hear the medical world stating enough what it means to be a hostage in the conditions in Gaza, or what it means to be kidnapped 431 days ago by terrorists. The infections, the diseases, the immune system, my sister’s gunshot wound — why aren’t they speaking on behalf of innocent people? And why have none of the international women’s organizations said anything?”
Romi was shot in the arm on October 7 while trying to escape from the Nova music festival. Terrorists dragged her by her hair, then by her wounded arm, into a car that carted her to Gaza. Women’s organizations may have spoken about the hostages once or twice, Yarden said. But that’s not enough.
The women in Gaza have been held captive long enough to experience about 15 menstrual cycles. Testimonies from released hostages describe the conditions that hostages endure: occasional, and cold, saltwater sponge baths; no changes of clothes; near constant supervision, including in the restroom. Testimonies have also corroborated what was known but ignored by many in the international community on October 7 — that women and men have been raped and sexually assaulted in captivity.
“These are monsters that are currently holding my sister. They’re starving everyone, they’re mentally and physically abusing everyone, and they are sexually abusing everyone,” Yarden said. “But girls can get pregnant, because terrorists rape them. We currently have 100 hostages, but maybe we have 101, 102, or more.”
Bahous and UN Women have not offered specific support to Israeli hostages. Bahous’s only mention of the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas was in her January address. “We have heard shocking accounts of unconscionable sexual violence during the attacks that have led to calls such as UN Women’s for accountability, justice, and support for all those affected,” she said at the time. “We unequivocally condemn all acts of sexual and gender-based violence wherever, whenever, and against whomever they are perpetrated. I call again for accountability for all those affected by the 7 October attacks.”
She then stressed “the situation of the women and girls of Gaza” and described how “these [Palestinian] women and girls are deprived of safety, medicine, health care, and shelter.” “They face imminent starvation and famine,” she continued. “Most of all they are deprived of hope and justice.” Since October 2023, UN Women has released three dozen articles about Palestinian women and girls in Gaza, as well as many press releases. The organization has written no articles on Israeli women specifically.
Women like Yarden aren’t asking UN Women, or other organizations, to ignore the suffering of innocent women and children in Gaza. They’re asking women’s organizations to identify the source of the suffering as the terrorists who not only terrorize the women remaining in captivity, and the tens of thousands of women and children in Gaza who suffer from Hamas’s oppressive regime, but also terrorized the hostages released or rescued and the hundreds slaughtered on October 7.
UN Women waited nearly two months before acknowledging that Israeli women were sexually assaulted. Even then, the organization’s statement did not explicitly say by whom Israeli women were raped. The statement was veiled in ambiguity and did not discuss the issues facing women and girls kidnapped by Hamas — issues that UN Women otherwise has no difficulty speaking about, when, for example, they affect Palestinian women. Such issues include pregnancy and birth complications, infectious diseases, sexual assault, lack of sanitation and hygiene services, and more. UN Women has addressed these topics at length — but only as they pertain to Palestinian women — in a series of stories published shortly after October 7, called “Voices from Gaza.”
Aviva Siegel, a released hostage — whose husband Keith, an American citizen, remains in captivity — was never asked about writing a “Voices from Gaza” feature story for UN Women. She spent 51 days in Gaza. Among other horrors, she witnessed an Israeli girl handcuffed and severely beaten by four terrorists, she told National Review.
“I couldn’t scream, and I couldn’t do anything, and I couldn’t help, and it was one of the worst moments of my life, because I wanted to protect her,” Siegel said. “And when she came back, she sat down on the floor. She was crying and shaking. She was red all over her body from being beaten up into pieces. And I asked after a while, ‘Why didn’t you scream? Because I wanted to scream for you.’ And she said that she didn’t want to give them the pleasure.”
Aviva’s story has not captured UN Women’s attention. Hostage families believe that their voices may be the only tools powerful enough to save their loved ones. And although many women’s organizations, including UN Women, are eager to publicize accounts of gender-based violence and sexual atrocities, they are so far unwilling to help publicize the stories of the remaining female hostages and the dozens of released female hostages.
Delegations of families of those held captive have asked to meet with UN Women staff members. They have been turned away. One delegation, the one Aviva and Yarden are traveling with, will be in New York, where UN Women’s headquarters is, this weekend. They’d be happy to meet with UN Women officials then.