At a UN International Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya in July 1985, leading Egyptian Arab feminist Nawal al-Saadawi was getting ready to give her talk when leading American feminist Betty Friedan came up to her and whispered "Please do not bring up Palestine in your speech. This is a women's conference, not a political conference." Thirty years later, Palestine, and Palestinian women, remain mostly excluded from the mainstream stages of feminism. This historic and ongoing exclusion of Palestine from a so-called progressive western agenda, has given rise to the acronym PEP, Progressive Except on Palestine. But, as the world watches the massacres in Gaza unfold in real-time, and millions follow in absolute awe, leading Palestinian women; doctors, journalists, teachers, mothers, and aid workers, courageously risk their lives in the line of duty, it is impossible to imagine this will not impact the way women in Palestine are viewed, and the way Palestine is talked about in Feminist circles and beyond.

Recording of the event is available at International Women Day Lecture | Palestine is a Feminist Issue (youtube.com).