Statement of the Kuwaiti Progressive Movement on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
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On the twenty-fifth of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, We must first refer to the suffering of Palestinian women, especially in Gaza in light of the war of extermination launched by the Zionist forces, with the blessing of Western imperialism, against the Palestinian Arab people and their valiant resistance, in which 20031 heroic martyrs rose, including more than 4,000 heroic women martyrs and more than 8,000 bereaved. In addition to the women prisoners in the occupation prisons and the brutal treatment they are subjected to, with the open support of the governments of the Western imperialist countries and the exposed cover-up and falsification of their official media in light of Western double standards. In this context, we refer to the suffering of women victims of wars and conflicts around the world, for example, in Sudan, women are systematically raped and sold as slaves in the new slave markets. Women in Arab countries and societies are also subjected to severe physical, sexual and psychological violence, but they are forced to keep silent about what they are subjected to for fear of the consequences, in light of the authorities' failure to protect the victims of attacks and the approach of not punishing the aggressors. In addition, there are serious negative practices and phenomena such as female genital mutilation and the internationally criminalized marriage of minors in some Arab countries and societies. We do not lose sight here of the practices of marital rape that are destructive to the psyche of women, as it exposes them to depression or pushes them to think about suicide, in addition to the dozens of physical diseases it causes, such as lacerations and others, not to mention the daily insult marital rape represents to married women. Unfortunately, these practices are not legally criminalized but are accepted at some social levels. Also we should not forget about the so-called honor killings, which is a murder with reduced punishment in the eyes of the law, where the victim is slaughtered twice, once by her family and again by covering up for the criminal and exonerating him socially and legally... This is in light of the lax laws in our Arab world, which allows this type of crime to increase, in addition to light sentences, and the attitude of society that turns the killer criminal into a hero. The war of women against world capitalism, class exploitation and sex-based oppression stems from their war against the discriminatory patriarchal system, which oppresses women in various forms, including exploitation through unpaid domestic work, which is supposed to be transformed into a paid activity, because it contributes to the production of Labor and capital. Also, prostitution, which constitutes one of the types of this oppression forces women from the poorest social strata to sell the only thing that the exploitative economic system sees as a commodity, namely their bodies. In Kuwait, there are additional types of discrimination and persecution against the country's women, ranging from being considered a second-class citizen, where she is not allowed to pass her nationality to her children, through discrimination against her in the right to housing, to discrimination in wages, salaries, allowances, university admission rates, and ending with dozens of different discrimination... And the suffering of Kuwaiti Bedoon and resident women workers, especially domestic workers.
In conclusion, the liberation of women in any society is fundamentally linked to the liberation of the working class and the working people as a whole. The first women's war is centered on confronting the unjust economic, social and political system, with all its injustices, violations, exploitation and discrimination against the exploited and oppressed, especially women.
Long live women's struggle against discrimination, persecution, injustice and exploitation!
Kuwait on 25th of November 2023