Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on VAWAG is a fucking disgrace

[CrocsNotDocs]

I had all the goodwill in the world for her with her stance on gender ideology and was disgusted at the behind the scenes attempts to have her removed by my Australian government but she can go get fucked.

She has just stated on X that there is no evidence that rapes took place on October 7. The rapes that were filmed, live-streamed and celebrated by the perpetrators.

x.com/unsrvaw/status/1989315118358745148?s=61

It would be remarkable if rape had not occurred on that day. Rape has been used as a method of torture and a way of engendering fear since forever, so why would it not have happened then?

A significant number of Israeli women were murdered and their bodies burned. Some families were burned alive. It's quite hard to get forensic evidence of rape but we do know that there was mutilation of women and girls genitals and broken pelvises. Was it "only sexual assault" or necrophilia? Are they more palatable. Back in January 2024 even the Guardian accepted there was evidence of rape and also that in the response and chaotic situation forensic evidence was lost.

I remain unsure on why so many people are adamant that Hamas didn't carry out rapes. We know they murdered over 1200 people including babies and throwing grenades into groups of young people hiding in toilets as well as taking hostages including women and children. Why is it so outlandish to say that some Hamas fighters were also raping and sexually assaulted women and girls. We know this happens in conflict and disaster zones.

We know that Ukrainian women have been raped by Russians in the current conflict and that Isis enacted terrible sexual violence. We know that men will rape during wartime, we have not just this century but the last century, it happened in Rwanda and Syria and Bangladesh and Ethiopia and Bosnia and in Korea and China and Russia and Armenia and Vietnam. We have evidence it has happened in every war/invasion/conflict going back to Ancient Greece and Rome.

So why is Hamas apparently different to every other army or resistance or however you view them we know they killed over 1000 people but somehow rape is their moral red line?

It's not that Hamas is different per se. The denial of these particular rapes is rooted in hatred of Israeli women. See the poster above claiming Israeli women are not credible because Israel is not credible. I've no idea why this thinking is so prevalent on mumsnet. I find it deeply, deeply concerning.

I think some people are so incapable of thinking that isn’t completely black and white, that they can’t get their heads round the fact that Israel has done appalling things to innocent people in Gaza, AND Hamas and their supporters have committed brutal and inhumane acts against innocent Israelis.
Other people are just dyed in the wool anti semites.
I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume the former but increasingly it is impossible not to face the fact of the latter.

I note we haven't seen anyone deny the rapes of Sudanese women in the current conflict, or demand forensic proof, before finding their reports credible.

Hamas filmed themselves raping women and girls. They live streamed it then posted it again and again with glee.

But Jewish women apparently don't count. Their deaths don't count. Their rapes don't count/ Their murdered children don't count.

See it for what it is. Appalling and grotesque anti Semitism and violations.

And FFS. I never see a random Russian civilian being blamed for the murderous actions of Putin. Never see a Chinese civilian held responsible for what the Chinese government is doing to the Uyghurs.

Never see all Muslims being lumped in with the actions of Hamas. And Isis.

And nor should they be.

Why are Jewish people worldwide and Israelis being held responsible for the actions of the Netanyahu government for which they hold no responsibility and no agency over? To the point that Jewish deaths don't count. Jewish lives don't count. Jewish rapes don't count.

And these people who have lost their humanity so profoundly that they don't care about Jewish women and Jewish lives actually think they are on the right side of history. If you are among those who that way then you are a disgrace to humankind.

Deeply, deeply disappointing. And I saw Heather Brunskell-Evans say the same thing recently too - another strong voice against gender ideology & VAW, but who seems to have a blind spot when it comes to Israeli women.

I echo the poster who mentioned Shani Louk - I also saw Palestine with different eyes after seeing that. It was so deeply shocking that my opinion changed completely because of the October 7th attacks.

I also saw an Israeli pathologist interviewed who categorically saw evidence of rape and sexual torture on the bodies of women, and there is eye-witness evidence from survivors who saw women raped and murdered at the music festival. That is plenty enough evidence for me, although clearly not for the UN.

Is she only referring to that? The tweet is dated today. The Dinah Report came out ages ago.

It is your deployment of distraction in order to deny, invalidate or minimise what happened on October 7th that is the issue and the offence, here.

Remarkable? The first time in human history, more like.

I don't doubt for one second that Palestinian women were raped because it is what Men as a class do in war/conflict/invasions/rebellions/any given day of the year that the opportunity presents itself.

For somebody then to have the temerity to say 'Oh, but were there independent witnesses? You can't prove rape without independent witnesses and (surviving) women to stand up and make themselves known to broadcast their intimate trauma, which would then be mocked, disbelieved, dismissed, told they didn't understand what had happened, it was just a fantasy - and you know what? Those types aren't trustworthy, they probably made it up anyhow or it serves them right' negates the entirety of female experience for political/ideological ends.

It's the opposite of pertinent and this is pathetic. If you want to discuss a completely different set of human rights abuses, start a thread instead of trying to detract from discussion on this one.

As for the thread topic, hadn't realised Reem was a Hamas rape denials. What a disappointment. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised though, with the UNs record.

This is one fo the things I’ve found most astounding about this whole thing. I’ve never seen women questioned about whther they were raped before during a terrorist attack or war in a way Israeli women have been questioned. I haven’t seen one person questioning any rapes during the ongoing crisis in Sudan and we have very little independent evidence on that. Just the fucking horrific testimonies of the women and those who bore witness to the crimes.

I think a lot of it is that the people who question it fundamentally support Hamas and don’t want what they see as “the resistance” tarnished with a crime that is basically seen as making you a pervert. It’s very hard to live with the cognitive dissonance that your noble fighters are actually just scrubby little perverts. So people decide the rapes couldn’t possibly have happened. I’ve met Palestinians who heavily engage in rape denial. Which is insane because of the level of martital rape that occurs in Palestine. Between 30-45% of Gazan women in surveys say their husbands have used force during sex. So I mean in that context given how common it is you wouldn’t really be surprised if they did it to someone else.

I think for a lot of these people the idea of a Palestinian man even wanting to rape a Jewish woman (the assumption is here I think it’s motivated by desire for Jewish women) is uncomfortable. I don’t know how to put this in a delicate way or articulate it properly but for a lot of people rape is still about the desirability of the victim. I think for a lot of pro Hamas people their view of Jews is that they are not just an oppressor class but the old tropes about Jews being uniquely ugly and disgusting as well (I feel ill writing that). So when a rape occurs it a) undermines the nobility of the rapist b) undermines the notion of the Jew being so vile that no decent man would touch one. I’m sorry for writing that, it feels so wrong on all levels, but from my conversations with some arab women it feels like they just see it that way. I’m definitely not saying that how all arab women see it at all but the response I’ve got from a few feels a bit like “why would any arab man want to have sex with a Jew”. These are not my friends by the way, these are conversations I’ve accidentally got into by expressing sympathy for the victims of 7th October. It’s the easy way to disbelieve women, “you are too ugly to rape, you are too inhuman to be fuckable”. It’s bothered me for a while but thats the undercurrent that I feel is there.

I feel like I need to have a shower, that made me feel disgusted just for typing it out.

Yes, it changed the Palestine issue for me too. I was broadly pro-Palestinian before, and while Hamas obviously don't represent all Palestinians I can't get past what they did.

I agree on Reem Alsalem too. She has done so much for women, I was expecting the thread title to be either sarcastic or some kind of wind-up.

Oh I know that Hamas are no different but I truly didn't want to be part of a world where women who would normally "believe women" will be resort to the old "well where's the evidence" and it's just all lies because they just hate Israel so much. I am genuinely heartbroken than women will disregard another woman's abuse because of her faith, ethnicity or the country she lives in.

Yep. I'm stunned.

People just don't realise how deep the rot is at the UN. It's bad. Really bad.

Quite.

Go back to the Groypers.

Who is “you” dragging this up again? I have never posted about Reem previously and posted directly about her comment on X last night. As far as the UN goes, given in 2024 they passed 18 resolutions against Israel versus 7 for the rest of the world (only 2 against Russia and none for Sudan) I don’t blame Israel for not letting their rape denialists free range to produce a report which would deny rape.

I will always call out rape denialism. And so does Feminists Against Antisemitism who put it more succinctly than me.

“Utterly reprehensible rape denial from the one woman in the world that has the power to fight for all women subjected to male violence.

I guess the witness statements, videos, UN report, first responder evidence and the words from the mouths of the hostages themselves isn’t enough for some.

I wonder what it would take for Reem to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, Hamas are rapists and Israeli/Jewish women have a right to the recognition of the war crimes committed against them?”

Members include Dr Grace O’Malley, Rosie Kay, Julia Long, Emma Hilton, Jean Hatchet, Bev Jackson, Stephanie Davies-Arab, Shahrar Ali and Joan Smith.

It's beyond disappointing. I'm shocked. Even if it represents her views, one of the things I admired about her is considered and measured language. This is the opposite of that - I'm think specifically about her letter to the Scottish government regarding the dangers of self-id which was well informed and a model of clarity and precision.

With respect to the assertion itself - the evidence for large scale rapes is very substantial. Many international news organizations have seen it. She appears to be relying on semantics to deny it took place, i.e. all evidence is tightly controlled by Israel at a national level so that investigations can't be conducted without their involvement; so it's impossible for them to be totally independent. Frankly that's the sort of thing that you see in conspiracy theories, notably holocaust denialism. 2) The Palestinians who celebrated the massacre were celebrating the killing of civilians, but not necessarily rape. If that's truly her views it should have been developed carefully and with precision, not in a misleading tweet.

It's always worth suspending final judgement on social media posts because they can be conditioned by emotion, illness, carelessness, occasionally even hacking. But on its face this is appalling and a big blow to GC causes in the UN.

That does seem to be a glaring comparison doesn’t it. Or when the Bosnian conflict was happening. No one demanded forensic proof of the atrocities committed against women there. I wonder why it is only Israeli women who must supply forensic proof of their rapes and torture by Hamas?

Didn't there use to be accusations of Isrealis not raping palestinian women because they were white racists?

Alsalem posted this on the 14th of November. Why on earth shouldnt OP post about it, today or any day?

As the OP has made very clear, currently Reem is under attack by people within the Australian government and its agencies such as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Anna Cody over the past week or so. This is due to the upcoming case where Buckley is taking Jasmine Sussex to discrimination tribunal in QLD because Jasmine said men should not be feeding the secretions from their breasts to infants.

Here is the archive link

“Secret email shows Anna Cody plotted move against UN women’s rights investigator”

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody asked about blocking the appointment of a senior UN human rights official who challenged her claims that transgender women are women.

Stephen Rice, November 10, 2025 - 9:30PM

https://archive.is/5v9O6

So there has been a huge support for Reem Alsalem for her amongst women. Of course it is pertinent to discuss her recent tweet to understand what may be going on.

I would have thought finding naked, mutilated women was not circumstantial. Looks like fact.