According to a recent report in Palestinian Media Watch, “the Palestinian Authority used International Women’s Day to glorify the memory of female terrorists and the value of mothers who knowingly send their sons to die as “Martyrs,” otherwise known as shahids in Arabic.”
By Rachel Avraham
Across the world, International Women’s Day is celebrated differently. In America, people utilize International Women’s Day as an opportunity to raise awareness about equal rights. In Azerbaijan, International Women’s Day is a bigger deal. People celebrated International Women’s Day by giving out flowers, dancing and having lively meals. It also is the custom in Azerbaijan to say “congratulations” to every woman on International Women’s Day. In the State of Israel, we celebrated International Women’s Day by wearing pink, dancing, and raising awareness about women’s rights and the importance of listening to women’s voices, especially following the massacre at Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
However, in the Palestinian Authority, they commemorated International Women’s Day very differently. According to a recent report in Palestinian Media Watch, “the Palestinian Authority used International Women’s Day to glorify the memory of female terrorists and the value of mothers who knowingly send their sons to die as “Martyrs,” otherwise known as shahids in Arabic.” In this manner, the Palestinian Authority utilizes International Women’s Day to glorify death instead of life.
According to the report, Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki proclaimed: “Allah is witness to the fact that there is no woman in the world like the Palestinian woman. The woman who makes sounds of joy for the Martyr and sings songs of the revolution for the groom (i.e., a Martyr’s funeral is considered his wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise in Islam). This woman is the one who gives up her son as he goes to fight with a rock, and she gives him the rock while knowing what her son’s fate will be. However, this woman is placed on a pedestal because she gave oxygen to this homeland, and she begins to feel that she has gained respect and high status in society when her son dies as a Martyr.”
Palestinian Media Watch also reported, “The PA also chose International Women’s Day to specifically glorify mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi, who led the Coastal Road Massacre, which was the most lethal attack in Israel’s history prior to October 7, 2023. Mughrabi, along with other Fatah terrorists, hijacked a bus, murdered 37 people, of which 12 were children, and wounded 70.”
Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam wrote on Facebook: “On March 8 [International Women’s Day], we send a salute of pride and honor to the Palestinian woman wherever she is…On this day, we remember our female prisoners who are dealing with the chains and prison guards, and we pray for our female Martyrs and leaders whose blood paved the path of freedom, from Dalal Mughrabi to Samiha Khalil (i.e., politician connected to the DFLP terror organization), [former PA Minister of Women’s Affairs] Rabiha Dhiab, and the rest of the icons of the struggle.”
Palestinian Media Watch added, “In the PA’s official daily, the Ramallah governor continued to extol the role of all Palestinian women as terrorists—the “Martyr, prisoner, and wounded”—and terrorist supporters— “the Martyr’s mother, the prisoner’s mother, his wife, his sister, and his daughter” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 9, 2025]. When someone is referred to as a “Martyr,” or Shahid in Arabic, it means that the person died while carrying out an idyllic act for Allah, such as the way Dalal Mughrabi murdered children in cold blood.”
Palestinian Media Watch continued, “In yet another article, the official PA daily honored other female terrorists as “icons”: Zakiya Shammout—who planted a bomb in the Afula market in 1969, murdering 1 and injuring dozens; Shadia Abu Ghazaleh—who prepared bombs for many attacks as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); and Intisar Al-Wazir—the wife of Abu Jihad. Abu Jihad planned numerous lethal terror attacks from the 1960s to the 1980s in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered.”
Palestinian Media Watch concluded, “In addition to regularly broadcasting that dying for the sake of Allah is the greatest of acts, the PA exploits International Women’s Day year in and year out to focus on women linked to terror. It does this in order to reiterate that the highest form of feminine hero is the terrorist Martyr or the mother of the terrorist Martyr.”
Image Credit: Palestinian Media Watch
