Israel-Hamas War

The Israel–Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, has unleashed a devastating humanitarian crisis—and also a deeply gendered one. The Oct. 7 attacks included the brutal use of rape and sexual violence against Israeli women, which feminists have condemned as a weapon of war demanding international accountability. In Gaza, Palestinian women and girls are suffering staggering losses—displacement, hunger, the collapse of maternal care, and rising risks of gender-based violence. Women’s voices have largely been sidelined in formal diplomacy, but feminist movements across Israel, Palestine and beyond continue to demand a ceasefire, a just peace, and a future shaped by the leadership of women.

White Plight: Trump’s Embrace of White South African ‘Refugees’ Is a Racist Bullhorn

PUBLISHED 5/14/2025 by

This week, Afrikaner “refugees” began arriving in the U.S.—some of the only refugees welcomed by the Trump administration. These white South Africans claim they are being persecuted at home: That white farmers are being attacked; that South Africa is not a safe place for them to live.

Much of the criticism of Trump’s decision to end refugee resettlement from just about everywhere else on the planet while welcoming a group that really isn’t facing particularly severe persecution has been derided as “political.” And it certainly is a stunt intended to provoke liberal outrage. But we should just call it what it is. It’s not “political.” It’s not a dogwhistle.

It’s racist.

This obvious troll from Trump (by way, I suspect, of Elon Musk and Stephen Miller) shows that, if they have their way, all the power will be white power.

Trump’s Detention of Pro-Palestinian Protester Marks Dark Turning Point in U.S. Jewish History

PUBLISHED 3/12/2025 by | UPDATED 3/13/2025 at 7:38 A.M. PT

Days before Purim, the Jewish “festival of the lots,” the Trump administration arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a U.S. green card holder whose spouse is a U.S. citizen, because of his role in anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian protest activity at Columbia University.

This is a terrible breach of civil libertarian principles and university cultures of critique and dissent. Immigration and naturalization are being pulled back, it seems, into an early-20th-century mode in which ambiguous standards of what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable political speech become grounds for admission or deportation from the U.S.

Sundance 2025: Timely, Incisive and With Unexpected Humor, ‘Coexistence, My Ass!’ Offers a Singular Perspective on Conflict in the Middle East

PUBLISHED 3/7/2025 by

Coexistence, My Ass!—which received a World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression at Sundance this year—chronicles five years in the life and work of activist and standup comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi.

Born to Romanian and Iranian Jewish parents, Shuster-Eliassi grew up in the Oasis of Peace, also known as Neve Shalom (in Hebrew) and Wahat al-Sallam (in Arabic), a social experiment in the form of a small village where Palestinians and Jews live intentionally as neighbors, and their children attend a bilingual school where they take classes on peacebuilding.

But Coexistence, My Ass! is far from a myopic biography of one activist comedian; instead, it becomes something much more expansive. The film encapsulates the deep complexities, horrors and challenges of the crisis in the Middle East and the conundrums of peacebuilding facing its many interlocuters without coming across as either naïve or completely hopeless.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio Will Be a Disaster for Women

PUBLISHED 1/15/2025 by and

On Wednesday, Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing as the next secretary of state. Rubio is expected to be confirmed without any serious opposition, thanks to the rarity of Cabinet nominee rejections and public support for Rubio, even among Democratic senators. (Rubio served for years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a senator from Florida, and Democrats like Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Cory Booker of New Jersey greeted him warmly on Wednesday.)

But make no mistake—Rubio’s history of hostility toward reproductive autonomy and his recent embrace of “America First” nationalism heralds a State Department that decimates women’s health, human rights and well-being.

Keeping Score: Senators Grill Hegseth, Call Trump Pick Unfit to Lead DOD; Pregnancy Doubles Homicide Risk for Women; Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden Title IX Rules

PUBLISHED 1/14/2025 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Getting pregnant doubles the risk of dying by homicide for women under 25; Biden has appointed a record 40 Black women to federal judgeships; Louisiana’s abortion ban has a chilling effect on maternal healthcare and miscarriage treatment; N.C. Republicans try to overturn the fair election of a Democratic justice; the psychological toll on children in Gaza is severe; Biden’s Title IX protections struck down; Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni for repeated sexual harassment and retaliation; Trump’s Cabinet will be the wealthiest in American history; and more.

War Profiteering: Children Bear the Brunt of Wars They Don’t Start

PUBLISHED 12/2/2024 by

I was a refugee during the Cold War, displaced by the geopolitical struggle between the U.S. and the USSR. Like millions of other children from that time, I carried the heavy weight of that war. My family fled Afghanistan, and in the process, I lost years of regular schooling—years that were supposed to form the foundation of my childhood.

The weight of this suffering has always fallen on children. And just as the world once turned away from the children of Auschwitz, Nagasaki and Trảng Bàng, it turns away from children in Gaza, Afghanistan, Sudan and many other places today. We revisit those historical images as if they were warnings, as if by remembering them we could prevent history from repeating itself. But we haven’t learned. The children of today are still carrying the same burdens—only the names and places have changed.

Whatever Happened to CEDAW?

PUBLISHED 8/27/2024 by

It’s been 45 years since the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, often described as an international bill of rights for women. Yet some younger feminists haven’t even heard of it.

The vast majority of the world’s nations—96 percent—have ratified CEDAW. The U.S. is not a signatory because it has never made it to the Senate floor for a ratifying vote—making it only industrialized democracy in the world that has yet to ratify it.

(This article originally appears in the Summer 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

‘The Way to Peace Requires Reconciliation’: The Ms. Q&A With Artist Tamara Gayer

PUBLISHED 6/18/2024 by

Albert Einstein once said, “In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity.” This maxim guides Israeli-American visual artist Tamara Gayer in her work to promote peace between Israel and Palestine. Gayer actively works to build U.S. financial support and raise funds for two anti-war organizations, Standing Together and A Land for All.

She spoke to Ms. as the war entered its eighth month: “A thirst for policies and organizations that do not pit the needs of Palestinians against those of Israelis, and vice versa, fills a deep need.”

A Violent Denial: Combating Silence Around Hamas’ Sexual Violence and Preventing Future War Crimes

PUBLISHED 5/23/2024 by | UPDATED 10/7/2024 at 1:18 P.M. PT

Feminist lessons of war are traumatically and often fatally difficult to come by. In her 2023 book, Twelve Feminist Lessons of War, Cynthia Enloe offers a list that includes: “Women’s wars are not men’s wars,” “wounds are gendered” and “feminists organize while war is raging.” She declares that “feminist lessons are for everyone.”

Cochav Elkayam-Levy is still figuring out the feminist lessons to be learned from the Oct. 7 attack. As she has come to accept, this will be her life’s work.

(This article originally appears in the Summer 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Keeping Score: Abortion Bans Drive Away Young Workers; Far-Right Groups Mobilize to Suppress Voting Rights; Biden Has Confirmed 200+ Judges

PUBLISHED 5/23/2024 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Young workers are avoiding states with abortion bans; 70 percent of likely voters support a ceasefire in Gaza; far-right groups are mobilizing to spread election conspiracies; potential new abortion restrictions in Louisiana; an update on Flint, Michigan; over 80 percent of men of color support abortion; Justice Samuel Alito is under fire for flying a “Stop the Steal” symbol; the Louisiana state legislature rejects a bill that would have allowed rape and incest victims aged 16 and younger to have an abortion and moves to add abortion pills to the list of controlled dangerous substances; and more.