An organizer behind the "Day Without a Woman" strike, Rasmea Yousef Odeh, is a convicted terrorist. Odeh co-authored a manifesto posted on the Guardian calling for the women's strike.
The Palestinian-born Odeh was convicted in Israel in 1970 for terrorism charges and spent 10 years in prison. She was charged for her involvement in a bombing that killed two students along with a second bombing, according to the New York Post.
Following her prison sentence, Odeh became a citizen of the United States in 2004 after lying on her immigration forms. She was convicted of immigration fraud in 2014, but is scheduled for a new hearing in the spring, as she argued she had post-traumatic stress disorder when she lied.
The march is scheduled to take place on March 8. The letter posted to The Guardian explains the idea of the march.
The idea is to mobilize women, including trans women, and all who support them in an international day of struggle – a day of striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex work, boycotting, calling out misogynistic politicians and companies, striking in educational institutions.
The letter calls for women to build off the "new wave of militant feminist struggle" that was initiated by the marches the day after President Trump's inauguration.
Odeh is not the only controversial organizer. Angela Davis, who also co-wrote the letter, is a Black Panthers supporter and Stalinist professor who was acquitted in a 1972 trial after guns she bought were used for a courtroom shootout resulting in the death of a judge. Another co-author and organizer is Tithi Bhattacharya, who praised Maoism in an essay for the International Socialist Review.