When it comes to sexual violence, why is it that Israeli women don't count?

SUNDAY was International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, held every year on November 25 as the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

- Nimco Ali

The annual event, which was first marked at the inauguration of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991, has since become a key day for those around the world working on protecting women and girls, especially those who work at the UN and other major international institutions.

I give this context to highlight how powerful this day is and could be. Instead it is the pointless international moment when global institutions pick and choose exactly which women and girls they seek to protect. On October 7, Hamas raped, killed and kidnapped women and girls in Israel. Those of us who have worked on violence against women and girls know this is a crime against humanity.

The brutality of what happened to Jewish women on October 7 was reminiscent of the war crimes committed against Yazidi women and girls in Iraq in 2014. They too were raped and kidnapped by terrorists who believed that, because of their ethnicity, they could be abused.

I remember my colleagues in the violence against women and girls sector standing up for Yazidi women against the Islamic State terrorists. I thought the same would happen with Hamas. Depressingly, I was wrong. I have been beyond distressed to see so many of my colleagues and counterparts ignore what happened on October 7.