Feminist silence

The death of the Aussie feminist

What the hell has happened to Aussie feminists?

How did we go from #metoo, to demanding proof from Israeli women who were raped and slaughtered on October 7 in the space of 7 short years? Why was I the only one (apart from one Jewish friend), out of my thousand odd social media “friends” that expressed horror and condemnation at the violence perpetrated against the women of Israel by Palestinians on October 7? How is it that the world collectively lost both their ability to think critically and its humanity at a time when Israeli women needed them the most?

In a world full of conspiracy theories and unverified social media saturation, it can often be difficult to sift through information to decipher the truth. This was not the case regarding the atrocities that were committed on October 7. You see the estimated 3000 Hamas terrorists and sympathising Palestinian fan-boys Go-Pro’d hours of footage in real time for the world to see. 

In the aftermath of October 7, Israeli authorities had an unprecedented task ahead of them. The police, the military and investigators grappled with a mass casualty crime scene. They had to identify the bodies and account for who was killed and who had been taken hostage. Some of the bodies were so badly burned in fires or explosions that there was little left to identify. Officials had to determine how many people were abducted in the chaos that ensued when Hamas penetrated Israel’s borders and how many were killed. 

Needless to say identification, DNA, witness testimony, compiling video evidence all takes time. Coupled with logistical difficulties, the Nation was in shock. There was hardly a single citizen that didn’t have a connection to one or more of the victims from the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.

Enter left of stage the serial protester brigade. A group of Australian women who claim to be ‘feminists’ have well and truly jumped on the Hamas train. Since October 7 self-coined ‘feminist’ Clementine Ford has converted her commentary from a generalised hatred of men and anyone who supports men, to an almost pathological obsessive Pro Palestinian left wing extremist propaganda forum.

The first and most obvious contradiction here is that Gaza is under the Islamic Extremist rule by terrorist organisation Hamas. For those of you living under a rock, Islamism is not kind to women. Under fundamentalist Islam women are at best second class citizens, at worst they are property to be sold, abused, married off and turned into baby incubators. Of course not all Muslims behave this way. People are diverse and generally have a choice on how they treat their women in their society. However it should be noted that a recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that overall support for Hamas stood at 40%. Despite this, many women are more concerned with Palestine than with extreme forms of gender apartheid such as stoning for alleged adultery, acid attacks, and lashings for rape victims—violations they would abhor in their own societies

Under Islamic Law women have very little rights. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have banned girls going to school beyond grade 6. In Iran the legal marriage of girls is 13. And women who choose not wear hijab risk fines or imprisonment. In Gaza “defaming” Islam is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of life in prison. The reality however can be much worse. Honour in Muslim majority countries is heavily burdened on the women. If a women is seen to shame her family, remove hijab, refuse marriage, marry through choice, or rebel, they risk being beaten or killed by their own family through an honour killing. Although such crimes are widely unreported, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) estimates as many as 5000 women are killed annually for reasons of honour.

So let’s get back to Ford. Since October 7 the lack of any acknowledgement of the brutal rape and sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women has been baffling. In fact her rants have progressed from and anti-zionist stand to an outright hatred and obsession with Israel. Earlier this year Clementine Ford was proudly complicit in the release of a leaked transcript of a private WhatsApp group for Jewish writers, artists, musicians and academics, that has led to threats of violence, a family in hiding, and the fast-tracking of new federal legislation to criminalise doxing.

Women from her own following begged her to reconsider her stance, based on the horrific violence Israeli women suffered. Ford in response wrote, “I don’t care that you felt betrayed or let down, and I especially don’t care that you want to have a big crybaby rant. You’re pathetic, you disgust me…”.

Here are a few examples of the testimonies Ford is so disgusted that women are reacting to. According to eye witnesses, women raped by Hamas were found with nails driven into their thighs and groin and were passed around by terrorists who slaughtered them after or even during gang-rape. One eye witness statement spoke of “a woman with copper hair, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back. There were many such witness testimonies from that day, as well as video evidence. Suffice to say that anyone with a brain could have little doubt that horrific sexual crimes occurred against women on that day.

Well except of course Aussie “feminist” Constance Hall. Hall has built her brand empire around the idea of supporting women, women’s rights and feminism. What has Hall said about October 7? Not much. She whispers the words “Zionists” to her 350k audience, as if the mere mention of people who dare to believe in the right to self-determination is too repulsive to say out loud. In response to a post about Israelis being raped she wrote, “Even if that is true, which I highly doubt, because every time I ask one of you to send me evidence of whatever you are spreading - you have a different excuse”. So let me get this clear, Hall who was a strong advocate of ‘believe all women’ now requires SVU type evidence and proof when Israeli women are the victims? Since that comment, once the complex evidence was collected and examined, undeniable proof of sexual violence has been acknowledged and accepted by the United Nations, women’s organisations and reputable news sources. But not Hall or Ford. In fact early in the year Hall posted a story to her 379k followers that was a fraudulent United Nations meme, denying that sexual violence took place on October 7. You might think that a woman that told us she stood for ‘all women’, may have taken the time to read the actual UN report, easily accessible to all, which clearly substantiates what we already knew to be true - but you would be wrong. Add to that list is women like Lauren Dubois - popular for God knows what - who can’t wait for Zionist ‘monsters to burn in hell’. Even Australian of the year Grace Tame who stood as a beacon of hope for young Aussie women who have experienced sexual abuse, has no words for the women of Israel. Nothing. Not a peep.

In my own social media world, within weeks of the October 7 massacre I was shocked to find “friends” that marched at the #metoo rallies, contemptuously demanding proof that Hamas used rape as a tactic of war. Once it became undeniable and widely reported and confirmed, their next stance was that Hamas were in fact “freedom fighters” and rape came under the banner of “by any means necessary”.

The implications of this type of moral confusion goes way beyond the scope of the Israel/Hamas war. Not only does the double standard violate our ideas about human rights, it also violates the basic principle of our modern democratic system. A double standard means that not everyone is equal. It means that some people are protected and others are not. Ford proudly calls for the dismantling of democracy. I wonder what she thinks the world will be like once this is achieved? Ironically it is the white privilege of living in a free democratic society that allows women like Ford the freedom to sprout such venomous hate, she recently stated on her Instagram account that ‘Israel has no right to exist’. I wonder if she feels the same way about herself? Living as a white coloniser on First Australians’ indigenous land, able to make a living through her capitalist business ventures? I patiently wait for evidence that Ford to take a leaf out of her own handbook, and gone back to where she came from.

If as a society we accept the rape of Israeli women “by any means necessary”, then we are giving terrorists a get out of jail free card and open the door wide to weaponising rape and sexual violence. In Courbevoie, near Paris in June of this year, a girl was attacked in a park near her home by three teenagers, who hurled antisemitic insults at her before dragging her to a shed and gang-raping her. Are these things related? Of course they are. Dehumanising a group of women based on their ethnicity is the lowest form of racism. It is cruel and it is dangerous. Because a world in which influencers like Ford and Hall are able to convince their audience that teenage girls in their pyjamas are not deserving of our empathy or our feminism, the world becomes a very unsafe place – for us all. Only a world where the unequivocal condemnation of sexual violence, against anyone, anywhere, can we claim the title of a civilised equal society.