UN report - Violence against mothers - Reem Alsalem

[WrongKindOfFeminist]

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc6249-violence-against-mothers-report-special-rapporteur-violence

'Motherhood remains largely undervalued and mischaracterized as a private choice rather than a public good requiring recognition and support from society and institutions'
...
'Mothers are subjected to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including as females and as primary caregivers for their children, navigating patriarchal control and assuming disproportionate socioeconomic burdens. This discrimination might be further compounded where mothers are migrants, forcibly displaced, single, adolescent, incarcerated or living with a disability. Their experiences may also be affected by factors such as age, labour status, sexual orientation, economic status, religion, belief or race.'

This promised to be an interesting report.

I stumbled here, though:

'In the first one hundred days of the Israeli invasion of Gaza after 7 October 2023, on average, two mothers were killed every hour. Palestinian mothers and their children were specifically targeted by Israel with genocidal language'

No mention of what the 7 October 2023 represents, Ms Alsalem? What about the Israeli mothers?

Thanks for the link. Haven't read whole report but looks timely

^13. The use of “mother-blind” language forms part of a wider trend of pivoting away from sex-specific language in some contexts, which hinders females’ access to tailored services and obscures maternal conditions.Efforts to retain female- and mother-specific language have, in some instances, been characterized as “exclusionary”, “stereotypical” or offensive.
This trend has been accompanied by an increasing push to use reductionist terminology such as “birth givers”, “gestational carriers” or “chestfeeding”.
Those opposing such language or related polices, including breastfeeding counsellors,are vilified or ostracized.^

I agree her blatant antisemitism is a real downer.

Her really odd blind spot for the evils of antisemitism and her callous treatment of Ilana Gritzewsky deligitimizes all her other work as far as I'm concerned.

It really is a weird blind spot. That paragraph is jarring in how it slides neatly over '7 October' without mention of any Israeli mothers and then lands on the deaths of Palestinian mothers (obviously tragic) and 'genocidal language'.

Does she not see Israeli mothers as human?

And its unfortunate because the work she's doing is often essential and valuable.

That’s awful.

'In the first one hundred days of the Israeli invasion of Gaza after 7 October 2023, on average, two mothers were killed every hour. Palestinian mothers and their children were specifically targeted by Israel with genocidal language'

So she's raising awareness about violence against mothers around the world.
.
.
Apart from Jewish mothers.

Yet people will still defend her. It's outrageous. 😡

She's human, she's flawed, she's hitting back at people who have called her out for the blind spot she has regarding the appalling experiences of Jewish women and young girls on Oct 7th.

It's a disappointment but it does not invalidate all the hard work she has done to raise awareness of the dangers women and girls face in this world because they are female.
She is, however, undermining all her own work with her denial of the degrading treatment suffered by Jewish women at the hands of Islamic terrorist's, and over inflating the treatment of women in Pally. Most of whom have actually suffered very real physical harms at the hands of Hamas because they were the ones they used as humanshields.

Seriously. Cant believe another thread about a very worthwhile report on how women as mothers are targetted is hijacked by those obsessed with making the same need to somehow blame the author for something she never did.

The report is about how women as mothers are more likely to suffer or are deliberately targetted.

There is no evidence that the violence against Israeli women on 7 October was about whether the women were mothers.

I would say, but have only skim read the report, it would be far more valid to ask how can you prove that Israeli bombardments of homes in Gaza are deliberately a tactic against mothers.

Although of course, it is more likely than not that in a civilian population women who are killed or injured are likely to be mothers.

You’re going to have to accept that people disagree with you on this. It’s not your thread.

I like Reem Alsalem mostly but she has one hell of a blind spot on this.

Don't be so childish.

Hundreds of women who are mothers in hundreds of countries are not mentioned in this report.

Have you even read the report and what its purpose is?

Does it make you feel virtuous or something to churn out this kneejerk response.

What happened in Israel on Oct 7 is hardly incidental to what has happened and is happening in Palestine, is it?

In 8 paragraphs on conflict she mentions Gaza twice. Her blatant antisemitism doesn't invalidate the whole report but is still concerning. I would have more respect if she'd highlighted the tactic of terroists and freedom fighters using women and children as human shields.

I feel far more fucking virtuous than someone who consistently diminishes blatant antisemitism.

Some of the independent reports on October the 7th contained descriptions of atrocities that I won't repeat on here that very much are pertinent to mothers.

And of course mothers with babies were taken hostage.

To mention Israeli actions in Gaza after October 7th while completely ignoring what happened to Israeli women (including the killing of mothers with their children, and the abduction of a mother with her baby and young son) is perverse in the extreme.

She is setting the Palestinians up as the innocent victims of the dastardly Jews Israelis, rather than exposing the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields by Hamas.

If antisemitism wasn't so normalised, a lot more people would see this for what it is.

Here is a link to the APPG report on October 7th.
It's utterly harrowing.

https://www.7octparliamentarycommission.co.uk/

Edited to add the link...

Another of the facile cliches. Have threads where people can comment means people can comment.

And say how boringly tedious it is to have the same half truth dragged out on any occasion which is so much easier to say something trite than look at the report contents about how mothers are subjected to violence.

Which you would have thought on a feminist forum would be something to be concerned about.

People have made their point. You disagree. The end.

It really is.

It’s so funny that you zero in on my mild comment when people have called out your nonsense in much stronger terms @IwantToRetire

As pp said it’s at best incredibly fucking tone deaf to mention the Israeli actions after Oct 7 without acknowledging what happened on Oct 7, and the fact that both mothers and children were brutally killed.

The youngest victim of 7 October was just 14 hours old – her mother had been shot whilst driving to the hospital to give birth and a bullet hit the baby girl’s leg whilst in utero.

Seems like a mother and child who ought to warrant a mention there.

Why not share your reflections on the report? Instead of griping at other people's comments.

I plan to come back to the report and look at it in more detail when I have enough time.

the point about Israeli mothers being ignored was the first thing that I noticed; I'm sure there will be other things to discuss.