While I was talking to some friends about feeling sympathy for the victims of October 7, then for all the women whose partners or parents have been overwhelmed with the demands of military service for well over two years, one of my friends added that if we were feeling sympathy for women we might also feel sympathy for women in Gaza.  She reported that she knows that women there, without protection and a home, are subject to violence and rape – by Hamas.  How do you know that? Someone asked. Its a common situation for societies in conflict, in transition, in disarray. someone else remarked.  And think of the women in Iran , another woman chimed in.  

No one denied it – women have the least power and suffer most in wars.