Throughout human history, never-ending wars have diversified and brought more mass deaths due to the technological and industrial development of the age. Not content with these, the masculine mentality has introduced private war policies. Today, there is a different war in almost every geography. While the deepening chaos in the Middle East is interpreted as the phase of a new world war, it is possible to say that PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan's prediction of “World War 3” years ago points to these days. 

 

Women and children are undoubtedly the most affected groups by the conflict and war processes. Migration, poverty, deterioration of infrastructure services, inadequacy of education and health institutions, violence, inability to access preventive and protective authorities are the main conditions that affect women. Although the geographies are different, the effects of war are the same. Sexual torture, harassment, rape, detention and murdered women's bodies have been systematic war crimes against women in almost every war. 

 

 

REPORT BY THE UN WOMEN'S DIVISION 

 

According to a report by United Nations (UN) Women, the number of women affected by war doubled in 2023 due to “blatant disregard” of laws that are supposed to safeguard women and children. According to the same report, 4 out of every 10 people who died in war zones in 2023 were women. In war-affected countries, 500 women die every day from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Sexual violence against women increased by 50 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. According to the report, less than 10 percent of negotiators in peace processes (2023) were women. UN Women reported that this is despite evidence that peace agreements involving women last longer and are more effective.

 

On November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we have compiled a list of the impact of war and civil conflict on women's lives in regions where war and civil strife continue today. 

 

 

UKRAINE 

 

Since February 24, 2022, when Russia launched its aggression against Ukraine, the death toll has reached one million. According to a report published by the Central Bank of Ukraine, 400,000 Ukrainians are expected to leave their country this year. The mass displacement caused by the war in Ukraine is increasing domestic violence, human trafficking and exploitation. Posters appear at Ukraine's border crossings warning women refugees of the dangers they may face. No one mentions the hundreds of thousands of women working for displaced people, refugees and people in need. 

 

 

RUSSIA 

 

The number of Russian soldiers has been on the agenda since the first day of the war with Ukraine. In recent statements, it is estimated that 350,000 Russian soldiers have died and tens of thousands have been wounded.  The BBC Russian Service, in a joint project with the Mediazona website, has identified the names of more than 45,000 Russian soldiers who have died. However, the total number is estimated to be much higher than that. The number of people displaced by the state of war in Russia is also quite high. It is estimated that 900 thousand people have left Russia. Most of those forced to flee the country are women and children. 

 

 

PALESTINE

 

Following the attacks launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, 43,603 Palestinians, including 17,210 children and 11,742 women, were killed and 102,929 people were injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza. While thousands of people are still reported to be under the rubble, hospitals and educational institutions where people took shelter were targeted and civilian infrastructure was also destroyed. The conditions of war also prevent Palestinian women from speaking out against all forms of violence, harassment and rape. While shouldering the additional burdens of war, Palestinian women have to struggle against all forms of violence. One of the most important situations experienced by women during this period of war and destruction has been forced migration. The number of women fleeing Israeli forces is high.

 

ISRAEL 

 

Israeli attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and Syria continue. According to the Israeli military, hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been killed in the mutual attacks. While the attacks are costing more and more money every day, the negative effects of the conflicts on the economy have also increased. It is stated that Israel spends close to 300 million dollars a day. Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) found that 40,600 Israelis left the country in the first 7 months of this year. 

 

In the first days of the clashes, a video of an Israeli woman being captured by Hamas forces and exposing her half-naked body in the back of a car went viral on the internet. In wars, women's bodies are subjected to violence while at the same time being obliged to produce new soldiers for the war. 

 

 

 

LEBANON

 

The Israeli army, which has been in conflict with Hezbollah since October 8, 2023, launched intensive airstrikes on September 23 against southern Lebanese cities as well as the Bekaa and Baalbek regions. On September 30, the Israeli army reported that it began “limited and intensive” ground attacks on Hezbollah's infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The number of people killed in Israel's attacks on Lebanon rose to 3,189 and the number of wounded to 14,78. Of those who lost their lives, 815 were women and children. It is estimated that 100 thousands of people have been displaced in Lebanon due to Israeli attacks. The destructiveness of the war in Lebanon is also reflected in the UNICEF report. According to the report, at least one child dies every day in Lebanon. Since October 2023, 166 children have lost their lives. One thousand 168 children were injured in the attacks. 

 

The lives of Lebanese women are getting harder every day. The closure of many workplaces and increased layoffs have brought poverty. The women most affected by the war have been displaced from Hezbollah-held areas. Displaced women lost their jobs and homes. 

 

SUDAN

 

Since April 15, 2023, fighting has been ongoing in Sudan between the army and the formerly affiliated Rapid Support Forces (SAF) over disagreements on issues such as military reform and integration. All attempts to find a solution to end the war have failed. According to the UN, more than 20 thousand people have lost their lives as a result of the clashes in Sudan, where the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis is taking place. Since April 2023, more than 3 million people have left the country, more than 11 million people have been internally displaced and more than 25 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. 

 

Poverty, lack of infrastructure, lack of access to health care and other problems have led to violence, as well as rape of women and the use of sexual violence as a tool of war. According to the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission in Sudan, many women are refugees. According to UN reports, Sudanese women have to relocate many times in the country and have to take care of children alone. In war-torn Sudan, the health system is not functioning effectively and the spread of epidemics is making people's lives even more difficult. On the other hand, the rainfall and floods that have been effective in Sudan since June have led to the spread of cholera. According to the Sudanese Ministry of Health, the total number of cholera cases in the country reached 29,147, while 852 people died. There are still 3.4 million children at risk of epidemics. 

 

FEDERATED KURDISTAN REGION 

 

Turkey's operations against the Federated Kurdistan Region, launched on April 17, 2022 in cooperation with the KDP, continue. According to the report of the US-based Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) operating in the Federated Kurdistan Region, at least 81 children have been killed and 115 have been injured in the attacks carried out by Turkey in Federated Kurdistan since 1991. In the region where Turkey continues its attacks in cooperation with the KDP, violence and oppression against women continue to increase. In the region where 30 women were murdered in just one month, most of the massacres of women are covered up under the name of “suicide”. Journalists Nagihan Akarsel was assassinated and Gulistan Tara and Hêro Behadîn were killed in an Armed Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) attack. 

 

 

 

NORTHERN AND EASTERN SYRIA

 

Following the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, the people living in North and East Syria, led by the Kurds, decided on July 19, 2012 to self-determination against ISIS and the Assad regime. Northern and Eastern Syria, which was cleared of ISIS, which threatens the whole world, and where self-governance was declared, is under attack by Turkey and its paramilitary groups, as well as forces loyal to the Damascus government. In these attacks, especially residential areas and service units are targeted. Many women and children have lost their lives in the attacks on living spaces. 

 

The aim of the attacks against Northern and Eastern Syria, where an alternative to the capitalist system is being built under the leadership of women, is to destroy the women's revolution. 

 

TURKEY 

 

Since the founding of the republic, the attitude towards marginalized peoples, especially Kurds, has not changed in Turkey. The events of September 6-7, when non-Muslims living in Istanbul were attacked and described as a “historical shame”, the massacres in Dêrsim, Zilan, Maraş and “33 Bullets” are just some of the massacres that remain in the memory. The state's attitude of suppressing the Kurdish issue through antidemocratic practices instead of a rights-based solution has brought the issue to this day. As a matter of fact, the state of conflict that has lasted for more than 40 years continues with all its bitterness. Although the clashes stopped during the process initiated between 2013 and 2015 to resolve the Kurdish issue, the clashes intensified on July 24, 2015. According to the data reflected in the Human Rights Association's (IHD) report, as a result of the lack of a solution in the intervening 8-year period; in addition to tens of thousands of casualties; freedom of expression and assembly, freedom of the press, the rule of law, the right to participate in politics have been trampled and authoritarianism has become entrenched.  

 

On the one hand, the political process was blocked with trustee practices, detentions and arrests; on the other hand, the isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, the interlocutor in the solution of the Kurdish issue, was deepened. The political, social and economic crises in the country have never ended due to the lack of a solution. According to the Dicle Center for Social Research (DİTAM), the cost of the conflict to the peoples of the country has been more than 4 trillion 20 billion dollars. While the war policies and the lack of a solution to the Kurdish issue returned to the peoples in the form of poverty, oppression and further extermination, the damage caused by the low-intensity war on women's bodies was severe. The sexual violence and rape in detention in the 1990s evolved into a different dimension with the special war policies in the 2000s. Women were dragged into prostitution and drugs through interventions in their living spaces and were intimidated through rape, massacres and prisons. 

 

COUNTRIES WITH COUP ATTEMPTS 

 

Civil war and conflict continue in many countries. In La Paz, capital of Bolivia, a coup attempt led by former Chief of Staff General Juan Jose Zuniga was thwarted in June. There was a coup attempt in Armenia in September. According to the Armenian Investigative Committee, an investigation has been launched against 7 people who attempted a coup. 

 

THE FIGHT AGAINST WAR AND MILITANCY 

 

For centuries, women have always been at the forefront of the struggle against wars in the male-dominated system. While the conflicts waged by nation states and characterized as the “Third World War” are spreading, the history of the struggle of women, the group most affected by the conditions of war, dates back to the past. There are many examples around the world where women have organized around the anti-war struggle and produced policies. Codepink in the USA, the Women's Leadership Institute (WLI) in Iraq, the Women's Peaceful Path for Political Negotiation of Conflicts in Colombia, and the struggle led by the Kurdish women's movement in Turkey are some of these examples.

 

CODEPINK IN AMERICA 

 

Women leading the peace movement in the US have founded Codepink. Codepink defines itself as a movement for peace and social justice and aims to end US-funded wars and occupations, challenge militarism globally and ensure that resources are spent on health, education, nature and other areas of life. It is an organization that fights against drone strikes, the Iran nuclear deal, and the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. Wearing the group's signature pink color, members organize anti-war marches, protests and various actions.

 

WOMEN'S NETWORK AGAINST MILITARISM 

 

The Women Against Militarism Network aims to create an international network of solidarity against militarism, bringing together groups in the United States and in countries in the Pacific that host US bases, such as South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, with the mission to promote, model and protect real security. By sharing experiences, this organization seeks to foster solidarity and healing among different women affected by militarism and violence, and to explain that militarism increases rape and human trafficking, and that wars have an impact on communities, women and children, as well as on health due to environmental pollution.

 

WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

 

The Women's Leadership Institute (WLI) was founded in Iraq in 2005 by a group of women's rights activists and has become one of the leading voices for the women's movement. In particular, WLI focused on raising issues related to the role of women in peacebuilding and raising awareness on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which addresses the impact of war on women and their role in conflict resolution. 

 

WOMEN'S PEACEFUL PATH

 

In Colombia, women began organizing in the 1990s against the war between the armed forces of the state, paramilitary groups and guerrillas. The largest internationally recognized peace organization of Colombian women became the Women's Peaceful Path for the Political Negotiation of Conflicts. With an office in Medellin and an alliance of more than 300 local women's groups in 8 regions of the country, the movement is organized as a mass movement of women who openly identify themselves as pacifist, feminist and anti-military. 

 

 

PEACE MOTHERS

 

In Turkey, the Peace Mothers Initiative was established with the aim of ending the violence, finding a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue and making peace permanent. The initiative later became a parliament.  The mothers, who set out to end the war, aimed to legitimize their demands for peace both nationally and internationally. One of their most notable actions was the march of 40 women from Amed to Ankara in 1999 with the slogans “For the sake of those left behind” and “We are mothers and we are for peace”. Again in 2004, 120 women from Istanbul and Kurdistan wanted to meet with then Chief of General Staff Hilmi Özkök. The “1000 Women for Peace” demonstration organized in Istanbul was one of the most popular demonstrations and Müyesser Güneş, the Peace Mother who initiated it, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

 

Contacts were also established with women's groups and politicians abroad. The mothers were invited by the European Parliament in 2002. The struggle of the Peace Mothers, who frequently visit Ankara during the hunger strikes against isolation in prisons, continues with the same determination as the first day. 

 

 

WOMEN'S INITIATIVE FOR PEACE

 

The Women's Initiative for Peace is one of the most effective efforts for the permanence and sustainability of peace. Founded just after the 2009 local elections when many women's movement activists were arrested without any justification in the wave of detentions and arrests launched under the name “KCK”, the initiative was formed by women who came together to speak out in favor of peace, emphasizing the violence caused by the war environment, the fact that women are also affected by this violence in many ways and the importance of solidarity.

 

 

WOMEN'S UNITY 

 

The first reaction to the Russia-Ukraine war came from women. “War means violence, poverty, forced displacement, shattered lives, insecurity and no future,” said feminists in Russia. The feminist peace coalition representing Israel-based Women Wage Peace and Palestinian-based Women of the Sun issued a joint statement in response to the escalating violence just days before the war. 

 

 

WOMEN'S PROTECTION UNITS (YPJ)

 

Women were at the forefront of the Kurdish-led struggle against the civil war that started in Syria in 2011. Organized and unorganized women fought against the war with various methods in different cities. With the “Rojava Revolution”, women's organization and struggle gave hope to the whole world. In Damascus, 11 active women's organizations were established after 2011. In Aleppo, women fought against the detention of children by military forces. The July 19, 2012 revolution ushered in a new era in women's struggle for freedom. Women took an active role in many fields from economy to arts, culture, culture, health, diplomacy and self-defense, sowing the seeds of a new life despite the attacks. On April 4, 2013, women who formed their own defense with the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) responded to the cries of the people of Sinjar who were attacked by ISIS and saved hundreds of Yazidi women from ISIS.

 

 

 

ÊZIDI WOMEN'S UNIONS 

 

In Sinjar, where ISIS attacked on August 3, 2014 and captured 7 thousand women and girls as “booty”, women do not stop fighting against the conditions of war. After the liberation of Sinjar from ISIS, Yazidi women who returned to their lands and rose from the ashes are pioneering a new construction in their lands. Establishing defense units, education and health institutions, and having a say in autonomous councils and local governments, women have also become a force in diplomacy with Êzidî Women's Unions (YJÊ) and Êzidî Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Azadiya Jinên Êzidxanê-TAJÊ).

 

While the threat of ISIS and the joint attacks of Turkey, Iraq and the Federated Kurdistan Region continue, Êzidî women continue their struggle against the war with great determination. 

 

 

MA / Zemo Ağgöz