Immediately after Donald Trump was sworn in as president of United States thousands of women took to the streets to protest. Their hate for Trump was overwhelming, their indignation at his misogyny was even more astounding. Years ago he had been caught on tape bragging about being able to do whatever, (no I’m not going to detail it here, it’s been done to death), he liked to women. Many of the protesters wore hats with ‘pussy ears’ to get their point across. And they did, and with the help from celebrities like Madonna (Unbelievable!

You said that?! ) and Ashley Judd (‘Hitler,’ Seriously?) along for the ride.

Did they feel better when they left the march and went home and returned to their daily lives? Did they feel they’d achieved anything? By all accounts Trump barely acknowledged them. So what now…wait until he says something sexist, take to the streets and do it all over again?

In the meantime on the other side of the world women are being held by ISIS as sex slaves, brutally raped and beaten up until their tormentors throw them out or murder them.

Recently I read an interview - in fact it was around the time the women’s marches were happening - with 18 year-old Lamiya Haji Basher who had been held captive in Iraq and Syria by ISIS. It made harrowing reading, she was tortured and raped by her tormentors. ‘Each man was worse than the one before. Everyone said I was difficult, so they beat me from the start. They were always beating me, always abusing me.’ she said to a Daily Mail reporter after her miraculous escape.

It breaks my heart that so many women are going through this torture.

Where is the protest? Where is the help? Where was the compassion the days the women marched?

When I was first a feminist in the 70s we debated, we marched, we broke windows, we achieved great things. Our sisterhood was strong, we cared about one another and eventually we brought about change. We looked forward to our own daughters being aware of the world around them and demanding change too. Donald Trump does not define my feminism, my feminism is defined by the love and compassion I feel for my sisters caught up in a brutal war waged by monsters in a religion which condones the oppression women.

This is what l will march for.

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