ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Mission to the United Nations will be hosting an event today, Monday, at the international organization’s headquarters aimed at spotlighting the plight of women and girls in countries under foreign occupation, as the war in Gaza rages on, with nearly 9,000 of around 31,000 people confirmed killed in Israel’s offensive being women.
In a statement to mark the International Women’s Day holiday, the Gaza health ministry said 60,000 pregnant women in the enclave were suffering from dehydration and malnutrition.
March 8 is typically a major public holiday in the Palestinian territories, when Gaza families put on their finest clothes and flock to hotels and restaurants to celebrate their mothers, daughters and sisters. But this year, with Gaza’s 2.3 million residents nearly all homeless and struggling for survival, there were no women’s day celebrations.
Against this background, Pakistan will hold a side event as part of the ongoing 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) at the UN Headquarters in New York.
“‘Women Under Foreign Occupation’ to be attended by members of the UN diplomatic community, women rights organizations, academia, and rights activists,” state-run APP reported.
“Speakers will share their perspectives and insights on the suffering of women braving the rigours of foreign occupation, armed conflicts and the usurpation of fundamental rights.”
“In the realm of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda, empirical data underscores that the most severe forms of violence and violations against women and girls occur within contexts of foreign occupation,” APP said, quoting from a concept paper on the event.
With acute hunger now spreading across Gaza and virtually no food available, mothers and small children are the most vulnerable. Though the crisis, which began after an Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, has not yet lasted long enough for starvation to kill the huge numbers associated with famine, it is already the most widespread hunger emergency ever witnessed by the IPC, an international body tasked with assessing famine.
The IPC reported last month that Gaza was already experiencing “the highest share, opens new tab of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity the IPC has ever classified for any given area or country.”
The UN Palestinian aid agency UNRWA noted on X that the death toll meant 63 women were being killed in Gaza on average per day, 37 of them mothers.