Why is there silence? Where are #BringBackOurGirls, #MeToo, and Women’s March celebrities and public figures?

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Friend,
Today we launch a new campaign featuring admirable advocates for women’s rights — Meghan McCain, Tulsi Gabbard, Riley Gaines, Sage Steele, Qanta Ahmed, and Emily Austin — calling on former champions of women’s rights to #StandwithWomen and demand the release of Israeli hostages.

We can’t celebrate International Women’s Day until our women and girls are back home.
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The reprehensible silence by elected leaders, women’s organizations, celebrities, and other prominent public figures who once backed #BringBackOurGirls, #MeToo, and the Women’s March is deafening.

In the wake of the horrific genocidal attacks on Israeli women and girls by Hamas on October 7, 2023—which included premeditated murder, mass rape, and violent sexual assault, and the deliberate use of real-time documentation and broadcasting of these crimes as psychological warfare—women’s human rights have been grotesquely neglected.

Rape is not a just weapon of war. It’s a war crime.

No matter what you think of the larger geopolitical implications of what’s happening in the Middle East, we should all be able to agree that the horrifying sexual assaults on women and girls are simply unacceptable and that there must be consequences for this grotesque violation of human rights.

Share our video and join us in amplifying a unified message this International Women’s Day to #StandWithWomen, condemn the atrocities and extreme sexual violence committed against Israeli women and girls by Hamas, and call for the release of those still held captive.
WATCH THE VIDEO ([link removed])
OTHER WAYS TO RECOGNIZE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY:

✅ Read Independent Women’s new letter to the White House’s Gender Policy Council, again asking for the White House to speak out forcefully and condemn Hamas’ weaponization of sexual violence and demand freedom for the hostages still being held and subjected to continued abuse. Continued silence signals apathy to this ongoing hostage problem and an indifference to the cause of women’s rights and equality.
READ THE LETTER ([link removed])

✅ Speak Up! Join Independent Women’s Network members in signing your name to the long list of advocates loudly and clearly standing up for women and against those who would use rape and sexual assault to demean, abuse, and terrorize women and girls.
SIGN THE PETITION ([link removed])

✅ Check out video from Independent Women’s Forum in New York this morning from the floor of the Nasdaq Marketsite for an iconic bell-ringing ceremony at in recognition of International Women’s Day.
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✅ Dissenting Stories: IW has been actively collecting stories from dissidents around the world who have suffered sex-based discrimination under the brutality of authoritarian regimes. "Dare to Dissent" is more than a collection of narratives; it is a catalyst for change, bringing these women out of obscurity and into the light. Are you a dissident who has fled your home country?
READ DISSENTING STORIES ([link removed])
SHARE YOUR STORY ([link removed])

Friend, Independent Women’s Forum will continue fighting for the rights of women around the world. Thank you for fighting alongside us today and everyday.

Yours in the fight,

Independent Women’s Forum
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