Wells of Pain, Walls of Silence: October 7 and Sexual Violence Against Women at Wartime

This essay focuses on sexual violence against women during the October 7 massacre and the following captivity of female hostages in the Gaza Strip. Its premise is twofold. First, it puts forward the resoluteness with which sexual violence against women must be condemned, as it transcends any politics. Sexual violence against women is unacceptable under any circumstances and cannot be used as a weapon in any kind of conflict. Next, various silencing walls that obstruct both condemnation of such violence and full exposure of it will be delineated. These are walls of Political Silence, Collective Shame Silence, Victim’s Shame Silence, and Post-Traumatic Silence. While these categories may overlap, this taxonomy helps illuminate the various factors that perpetuate silence regarding wartime sexual violence against women. These walls of silence not only obstruct truth-finding but also impede accountability and the development of effective preventive measures against future sexual violence against women. As concluded, there is an urgent need to dismantle the mechanisms that obscure wartime sexual violence and to invest efforts in strengthening new strategies that will effectively protect women from sexual violence in wartime.