Beauty queen and former Miss World Lenore Abergel's shocking speech at the United Nations, in which she cried out over the severe rape trauma she endured and spoke out against women's organizations' disregard for the sexual assaults of October 7, continues to make waves around the world. On Tuesday, Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning actress Jessica Chastain ("The Eyes of Tammy Faye," "The Tree of Life," "The Debt," "The Help") shared a video of Lenore's speech with her 5.4 million Instagram followers on Tuesday and added text that left no room for doubt as to the shock she felt inside.
"Sexual violence should never be acceptable or excused. Your silence is complicity in crime," she wrote on a gloomy black background. Below she added another text from a tweet she posted on X (formerly Twitter) in which she wrote: "I am a woman who is afraid for the women of the world. Sexual violence against women should never be justified. It's an inhumane act."
Jessica Chastain's story, photo: Instagram
On Monday, Abergel took the UN stage at a conference organized on behalf of Israel and gave a speech that was full of outcry and enormous anger at the hypocrisy of women's organizations around the world since October 7. "I was only 18 at the time," she shared of her brutal rape nearly three decades ago. "It's been 25 years. Since October 7, I have been hearing the demons in my head. The terrible videos bring everything back. I feel their pain, their lives taken.
"I remember the warm embrace I received 25 years ago from international women's organizations. I felt that I had my back, that I was believed, that I was listened to. Did those organizations then demand evidence from me? Did they doubt me? Did they want to conduct a thorough investigation before jumping to conclusions? Not. How convenient it was then for these organizations to use my name, my advertising, to invite me to their detached conferences to be photographed with the person who became their symbol, and how ashamed I am today that I stood at their show.
Lenore Abergil on the UN stage, photo: uncredited
"Bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists have documented their war crimes, but most women's organizations are still silent. The truth will be revealed. We will not forget them and ensure that the world does not forget them. We will be the voice that is taken from them."
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