“Women will not give up. We are fuelled by a will to survive.” — Narges Mohammadi
In 2025, the world continued to face deepening crises. Wars intensified, authoritarianism expanded, and human rights came under sustained attack. From Palestine and Sudan to Yemen, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, and beyond, women and girls carried the heaviest burdens of violence, displacement, repression, and the denial of their most basic rights.
And yet, amid these realities, women continued to lead with extraordinary courage. Across contexts, they organized, resisted, defended their communities, and advanced visions of peace and justice rooted in lived experience, solidarity, and collective care.
On 12 December 2025, our sister laureate Narges Mohammadi was once again unjustly detained in Iran for continuing to speak out for freedom, democracy, and women’s rights. Like so many women leaders this year, she refused silence despite immense personal risk. We reaffirm our solidarity with Narges and with all political prisoners and human rights defenders facing persecution for demanding justice and freedom.
Throughout the year, the women we worked alongside reminded us what this courage looks like in practice. In Kabul and Kandahar, young women joined our Sister-to-Sister Afghanistan program from darkened rooms, speaking softly so neighbors would not hear. During our delegation to Palestine and Jordan in April 2025, we met women living through occupation, displacement, and profound loss, who continued to resist, to demand justice, accountability, and dignity for their people. As one woman told us, “We do not ask for pity. We demand justice. We demand the right to live.” Throughout the delegation, we were reminded that showing up, listening, and bearing witness are themselves acts of solidarity.
At Nobel Women’s Initiative, we remain steadfast in our commitment to stand alongside women and movements. We believe lasting peace cannot be imposed from above or built through militarism alone. It must be shaped by the people living through conflict and injustice - especially women, whose leadership is essentially, but too often ignored.
This belief guided our work throughout 2025 and shaped the theme of our Sister-to-Sister program: Rooted & Rising. Young women from more than 20 countries gathered, inspired by the legacy of our founding sister laureate Wangari Maathai, to build new pathways for feminist leadership, climate justice, and peace. Across every region, we witnessed movements deeply rooted in community, memory, and shared struggle continue to rise in the face of violence, repression, and fear.
We also saw how care, solidarity, and what we have come to understand as radical love sustain people and movements through the long work of resistance and transformation. In a world increasingly shaped by division, disinformation, and authoritarianism, these forms of connection and collective action are more necessary than ever. As Maria Ressa has warned, “information integrity is the mother of all battles.”
As we look ahead, we remain committed to strengthening solidarity across borders, defending truth and democracy, and supporting the courageous women leading movements for peace and justice every day. Another future remains possible — rooted in solidarity and rising through collective action.
And as our sister laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk reminds us:
“ordinary people have much more power than they realize.”
In solidarity,
Rigoberta Menchu Tum
Jody Williams
Shirin Ebadi
Leymah Gbowee
Tawakkol Karman
Maria Ressa
Oleksandra Matviichuk
Narges Mohammadi