2022 - 16 Days of Activism - Nobel Women's Initiative

The 2022 Nobel Women's Initiative's contribution to the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence Campaign features interviews with women activists about their experiences advocating for peace and women’s rights in conflict zones. In Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, these human rights defenders pursue peace as one pathway to reducing sexual and other forms of gender-based violence.

Afrah Nassar: "Believe that you are worth listening to."

During her first visit back to Yemen in 11 years, Afrah Nasser would wake up thinking “Damn, I’m a woman.”

Jamila Afghani: “We should extend hands of support to each other."

“People are just in survival mode [in Afghanistan]. Everybody is looking for a piece of bread to continue to survive.”

Mèaza Gidey Gebremedhin: “I always need to fight for myself, for my place in this world, and to help others.”

“It's really important that people understand the distinction between gender-based violence in normal settings and a weaponized one…When it is weaponized, the state is involved with its full apparatus. Implicitly or explicitly, soldiers are ordered to rape. Rape and the trauma of the victim become weapons in the aggressor’s arsenal of destruction in the service of a broader strategy or political objective.”

A Q&A with democracy activist Khin Ohmar: "I feel at peace knowing there is a young generation fighting for their rights."

“Young women democracy activists [in Myanmar] have formed networks among themselves to protect and defend their lives at the local level.”

Amira Osman Hamed: "Don't let them terrify you."

“Let us unite for our rights, for our dignity, for our free will, for a peaceful world…Let’s unite to defend our causes all over the world, to condemn the violence against women under the name of customs, traditions, and religion. Let’s make our main course of action so that every human can live with honor and dignity.”

Lubna Alkanawati: "What's really helped me to survive is the women's network around me."

Lubna Alkanawati would love to return to Syria one day with her son. She can’t while danger, even death, awaits.

Nina Potarska, Anna Chernova and Oksana Senyk: "Family peace is a small piece of peacebuilding."

Where do women activists find hope amid war in Ukraine where Russian forces weaponize brutal rape, and domestic violence surges?

It’s a question that momentarily silences three Ukrainian women during a joint interview for the Nobel Women’s Initiative’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence.

Nadia Murad: "We don't get anywhere by pacifying with politeness."

A Q&A with the Yazidi human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

“Conflict undoubtedly deteriorates women’s rights, but women are not safe from violence in peacetime. Sexual violence does not begin or end when conflict does. So, when we advocate for peace, I think it is crucial to demand justice and equity – not just the absence of conflict. This means addressing the root causes that make women vulnerable—systems of poverty and patriarchy—and empowering women to participate in peacebuilding and development.

2022 - 16 Days of Activism