Gal Gadot arrives at the world premiere of Wonder Woman in Los Angeles. Credit:AP This, it should be noted, is not related to the bans on the film by countries including Lebanon and Tunisia who are responding to Gadot's nationality (many Arab countries do not recognise the existence of Israel), and not specifically to her expressed anti-Palestinian views. Now, as much as I am sympathetic to the motivations of BDS, I'm also wary that in this particular instance they have chosen an inappropriate target. Launched in 2005 by Palestinian activists, and inspired by the successful boycott of apartheid-era South Africa, BDS asks for a cultural and economic boycott of Israel until it agrees to end its Occupation of Palestine, which United Nations Secretary General António Guterres says has forced "generation after generation of Palestinians ... to grow-up and live in ever more crowded refugee camps, many in abject poverty, and with little or no prospect of a better life for their children."

The "cultural" component of BDS means artists, musicians, and filmmakers may eventually be asked to take a stand, something Radiohead singer Thom Yorke recently discovered, to his annoyance. The band is due to play Tel Aviv a few weeks from now, and taking potshots at fellow musician Roger Waters, Yorke told Rolling Stone he couldn't understand "why going to play a rock show or going to speak at a university [is a problem]". This seems rather tone-deaf. Sanctions and boycotts have long been used to propel political change. Playing rock shows and speaking at universities is a problem for Roger Waters, and others who support the right of Palestinians to self-determination, because it undermines pressure placed on Israel to change its policies. Radiohead is not being specifically targeted – rather they are being asked to engage in collective action, and avoiding one country on a world tour is hardly going to derail the band's success. The Wonder Woman boycott, on the other hand, is less compelling; partly because it centres on a single person. The problem is, unless they are politicians directly responsible for bad policies, targeting individuals, no matter how awful their views, is not only unlikely to effect systemic change, it also risks turning them into martyrs. And given Wonder Woman is not even an Israeli film, it should lie outside the parameters of the BDS campaign. So while Thom Yorke should just suck it up, targeting Gadot and Wonder Woman seems misplaced, not least because it affects people who have nothing to do with Israel whatsoever.

Declaring the film an empowering message for women, while ignoring Gadot's support of the Israeli policies ... is a bitter pill to swallow. However, that does not mean there isn't a discussion to be had. The boycott demand may be misguided but the underlying reasons certainly are not. As someone who has never read a comic book from cover to cover, and who finds earnest discussions of American superheroes bemusing, I concede Wonder Woman is not made for me. I'm not here to give a review. What I am here to say is that feminists need to lift their game when it comes to acknowledging the grievances of their Arab sisters. You'd be forgiven for thinking the boycott controversy didn't even exist, given it has barely rated a mention in mainstream circles. It is a frustrating reminder of what I call the Arab blindspot of Western feminism. And no, I don't just mean "white" feminism, but Western feminism, which, even as it strives for diversity and inclusion within the West, has a consistent ability to ignore the ways in which this same feminism can trample on women outside the West.

For all the World Hijab Days, and I'll Ride With You hashtags, when it comes to women who reside in Arab Muslim-majority countries, or who – like myself – hail from there, feminism frequently prefers to blank out our existence when listening to us becomes too inconvenient. It's easy to post a selfie in a headscarf you wore for half a day. A lot harder is to consider how your unbridled support for, say, a female politician, contributes to the oppression of Muslim women in the Middle East. I'm not saying feminists should boycott Wonder Woman – just as I never said feminists should not vote for Hillary Clinton. But it's the refusal to acknowledge the existence, let alone the validity, of the perspective of dissenting Arab women that makes Western feminism self-centred. Hailing Wonder Woman as a hero for all women is an ironic assault given the huge gulf between the character's anti-war idealism and the hawkish views of the actor who portrays her. I know actors are not the roles they play, but since Wonder Woman's appeal lies largely in her compassion for all victims of war, and her impatience for the oppressions of men, declaring the film an empowering message for women while ignoring Gadot's support of the Israeli policies that leave Palestinian women disempowered is a bitter pill to swallow.