Commentary: Being an “Uncommitted” Woman in the United States

Among the contentious issues this election cycle is how the U.S. Administration has been handling — or not — the escalating crisis in the Mideast. We have featured several commentaries sharing differing perspectives. This is another one, from a freelance reporter who has worked on our Minnesota legislative and transforming justice topics over the past few years. She wanted to share her opinion about what the viewpoint of an Undecided voter looks like.

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This has been the hardest and most exhausting election I can remember. I’ve worked and covered every election since 2008 and, this year, I just want to climb under a rock and hide.

I am an Arab-American woman and I have no idea what to do this year. Come Election Day, I don’t know if my vote is for Harris or a “Free Palestine” write-in vote. The problem I see is this: Harris’ comments on Palestine have been meaningless, if not actively harmful. I recognize that Trump is the greater of two evils, but the lesser evil is doing nothing to end the genocide of people who look like my family.

I care about reproductive justice. I care about it for all women. But for me, “all women” includes women in Gaza, where nearly all the hospitals are severely damaged or destroyed and the health care system has entirely collapsed. “All women” includes the women in Gaza who are dying and having their newborn babies die due to a constant bombardment from Israeli forces. “All women,” includes women in Gaza who have been fighting for years for access to IVF. “All women” includes women  being raped in this never-ending genocide.

I cannot consider a vote for Harris as a vote for inclusive and global reproductive justice.

I was an uncommitted voter in the primary, proudly and loudly. I’ve not decided yet what my vote this year will look like.

Aurora Levins Morales, feminist author, once wrote that “we on the left are voting for an opponent, not a leader,” and that rings true to me. I know I’ll be voting for an opponent and I know that Trump (and Green Party candidate Stein) can never do anything to earn my vote. I also do not see Harris doing anything to end this genocide.

The official Palestinian Health Ministry count as of September 29, was 41,595 Palestinians dead, amounting to about 10 times its count of losses in all previous Gaza conflicts since 2008.

I don’t want to be asked to vote for my womanhood and against my Arab-ness.

In short, to be honest, I am angry that this year’s election messaging wants me to choose between who I am as a woman and who I am as an Arab-American. I don’t know how to make that decision.

 

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