MEPs Say Women’s Rights Under Threat in Post October 7 Middle East

(L-R) MEP Fulvio Martusciello, Manel Mslalmi and Dr. Charles Asher Small speaking at the EU Parliament in Brussels, October 15, 2024.

An urgent discussion on the growing threats to women’s rights in the Middle East following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, took place at the European Parliament yesterday, marking a year since the attacks. The event, co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), brought together key policymakers and experts to examine how extremism and instability in the region are eroding women’s security and freedoms.

The forum, led by MEP Fulvio Martusciello, featured a panel that included ISGAP Executive Director Dr. Charles Asher Small, counterterrorism specialist Claude Moniquet, and academics including Prof. Firouzeh Nahavandi, alongside MEPs Lopez-Isturiz White, Miriam Lexmann, and Giuseppina Princi. Moderated by Manel Msalmi, President of the European Association for the Defense of Minorities, the discussion focused on the broader implications of gender-based violence and the global response—or lack thereof—to the plight of women in conflict zones.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched a coordinated assault on Israel, leading to the deaths of over 1,000 civilians, with hundreds more injured and abducted. Among the victims, many women were subjected to horrific gender-based violence, including rape and kidnapping. The brutal targeting of women during the attack, described as a deliberate tactic of terror, has drawn international condemnation but also exposed a deeper, ongoing crisis for women's rights in the region.

Dr. Small criticized the international community’s muted reaction to the abduction and murder of Israeli women during the October 7 attack, arguing that silence on these atrocities only emboldens oppressive regimes across the Middle East. “We are witnessing a disturbing normalization of gender-based violence,” he said. “The same regimes targeting Jewish people are also oppressing women, Christians, and moderate Muslims. If the world continues to look the other way, it invites further atrocities.”

Msalmi highlighted the systemic suppression of women’s rights in countries like Iran and Afghanistan, where recent developments have further stripped women of their basic freedoms. “The violence we saw on October 7 is part of a larger pattern of repression against women in the region. The international community must not remain indifferent,” she warned.

The event emphasized the need for a stronger global response to both antisemitism and the escalating human rights abuses against women in the Middle East, calling for immediate action to address these crises.

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