"I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own" - Audre Lorde.

I am not free until there aren’t 11 women murdered daily in Mexico.

I am not free until every woman can walk home without feeling like she has to watch her back.

I am not free until we all feel like we can speak up.

There is a deep hurt in my heart due to the silence of my fellow feminists, or as I like to call them, “selective feminists,” maybe even “hypocrites,” after October 7th, 2023.

As many of you probably know, on October 7th, the terrorist organization Hamas entered Israel and raped, kidnapped, maimed and murdered innocent civilians. Today, 5 months later, there are still 13 women held hostage in Gaza. I am a woman; I am Israeli and I am proud. Only now, 5 months later, feminist organizations are starting to speak up. Only now, they are starting to investigate the allegations of sexual assault against Hamas. Because only now, there are “reasonable grounds to believe Hamas committed acts of sexual assault.”

Let me tell you the story of Naama Levy, one of the girls still held hostage. Naama is 19 years old and was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz IDF base. She had arrived on base on Thursday, October 5th and had just finished her training to be a part of the border observation unit. Many of you have probably seen a video of a girl in grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt being dragged by the hair from the trunk of a keep to its back seat at gunpoint, with her hands tied behind her back. Naama is described as a girl who believes in the good of all people; she was a member of "Hands of Peace," which unites American, Israeli, and Palestinian youth for social change and action from the ground up.

I am not free until Naama is free.

Until all women are free.

Thank you to all who spoke up today; I am incredibly proud of you all. I want to be able to protect all women, to fight, to prevent anything from happening to you. In the same way, I fight for any woman, however different she may be from myself, I ask you, feminist, to speak up and fight for every woman.