The North Africa and Middle East region of the World March of Women expresses its deep concern over the escalating military tensions between Israel and Iran. This situation has become a dangerous turning point for the region, amid signs of a widening confrontation and possible involvement of major international powers. This raises the threat of a full-scale regional war, endangering lives, destabilizing countries, and worsening human tragedies—especially for women, who continue to bear the burden of wars and political violence.

Tensions in the region have peaked since October 7, 2023, when the Zionist entity set three main goals:

• Systematically destroy Gaza and pave the way for its depopulation through mass displacement.

• Weaken Iran’s influence in the region and strike resistance forces near the borders of occupied Palestine.

• End Iran’s nuclear program, as part of a broader struggle for regional military and political supremacy.

Iran’s unprecedented response—targeting strategic locations in Israel with dozens of missiles—marked the shift to open warfare, leading to the closure of airspace in five countries, disruptions to economic movement, and an increased risk of broader conflict in the Persian Gulf, particularly if the Strait of Hormuz is blocked. This could trigger a global crisis affecting oil, the environment, and public health.

This unprecedented war reflects a Zionist colonialist project aimed at imposing Israel as an unstoppable regional hegemon. It seeks not only to dismantle opposing forces but also to topple entire regimes, as in the case of Iran, paving the way for the fragmentation and partitioning of the region—with direct support or complicit silence from the West.

As in all wars, women are pushed to the frontline of suffering:

• In Gaza, women are forcibly displaced, lose their children, lack access to food and healthcare, and are deprived of basic necessities.

• In the West Bank, women face daily raids, arrests, physical and psychological abuse, and a total media blackout.

• Palestinian mothers are forced to raise their children under inhumane conditions, with schools fully closed and remote education unsuitable under occupation and poverty.

• In refugee areas, women are subjected to sexual violence, forced marriages, and exploitation, in the absence of protection and accountability mechanisms.

This war is waged not only with missiles but through systemic violence against women: dismantling social structures, reinforcing male dominance, and depriving women of their dignity, rights, and security.

If the war intensifies and spreads to the Gulf, the consequences will be catastrophic:

• Soaring fuel and food prices.

• Disruption of pharmaceutical supply chains and shortages of vaccines and medicines.

• Potential attacks on oil or nuclear facilities, threatening an unprecedented environmental and health disaster.

In all these scenarios, women are hit the hardest:

• They carry the burden of caregiving as local economies collapse.

• They are denied access to basic healthcare, especially for childbirth and reproductive health.

• They are forced into debt or precarious work to meet their families’ basic needs.

While the world is focused on the war with Iran, the Zionist entity is accelerating its plans in Palestine:

On the night of June 14, 2025, 79 people were martyred in Gaza alone, across the north, center, and south of the strip. The West Bank is completely sealed off, cities are under siege, hundreds arrested, students lack access to education, and patients to medical care. The military continues demolishing homes on top of their residents and bombing schools and hospitals. Palestinian women are denied their basic rights and often used as pawns in psychological and military warfare. Since October 2023, over 183,000 men and women have been martyred in an ongoing war of extermination that defies International Court of Justice rulings and UN appeals, taking place in broad daylight with no accountability.

The North Africa and Middle East region of the World March of Women affirms that the war between Iran and the Zionist entity poses a direct threat to Iraq, particularly to armed factions. Should Iraq intervene or offer support, its infrastructure will be directly targeted. Already, ten sites belonging to Hezbollah in Iraq, Khorasani, and the Popular Mobilization Forces have been bombed, and Zionist forces have repeatedly violated Iraqi airspace, despite the government’s warnings and formal complaints to the UN. Missile fragments have landed in southern and western cities.

Faced with this tragic situation, all airports and airspace in Iraq have been closed until further notice. Thousands of families are now internally displaced from the south to the capital, fearing potential radiation leaks from Zionist bombings of uranium plants in Iran.

In this context, we raise a feminist cry—for resistance, for life, and for justice.

From the Global South:

We reject the logic of colonial wars, Zionist hegemony, and Western interventions targeting our peoples. We refuse to let our bodies and societies become instruments in great power conflicts. We condemn the international silence and political complicity that legitimizes aggression and fuels genocide. We demand an immediate end to the war on Gaza, the lifting of the siege, an end to the aggression against Iran, and full accountability for war crimes. We express our full solidarity with Palestinian, Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese, Yemeni women—and all women in the region fighting for life and dignity. We believe that feminist sovereignty, climate justice, food sovereignty, and the right of peoples to self-determination are the true paths to a just peace.