InkSights is a monthly art series by NWMI member Anupama Bijur viewing current affairs through a gender and news lens.
“Peace on Earth…” is more than just a wish this festive season, as the Israel-Hamas war rages on. Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of UN-Women, points out that women and girls pay the highest price in armed conflicts. “Since October 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, 67% of the more than 14,000 people killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children,” Bahous said last week. (The latest figure for Palestinian fatalities is over 15,000.) 180 women in Gaza are giving birth daily without water, painkillers or anaesthesia for C-sections. 5,500 women in Gaza and 8,000 in the West Bank are to give birth this month. 40% of the deaths in Gaza have been children. (Source: UNFPA, UN-Women, UNICEF, UNOCHA)
“Women in Gaza have told us that they pray for peace, but that if peace does not come, they pray for a quick death, in their sleep, with their children in their arms,” Bahous said. “It should shame us all that any mother, anywhere, has such a prayer.” In this scenario, “Peace on earth, goodwill to all” is not just a festive greeting, but a painful reminder of how far we are from achieving peace for all humankind.
