The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in Southwest Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA) bears witness to the escalation of the colonial war waged by Israel and the United States against Iran and Lebanon, in conjunction with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the proxy war in Sudan, the ongoing sectarian violence in Syria, and the accompanying kidnapping and terrorization of civilians of various ethnic affiliations.
We are witnessing the beginning of a new chapter of the destruction of lives and infrastructure, the escalation of systematic terrorization of people in our region, and complete contempt for all forms of life in it. It is a region burdened with calamities, pushed towards a project of chaos whose features are unfolding day after day.
We are facing a reality in which our region is being subjugated and humiliated for the benefit of Israel, with the participation of complicit regimes that have offered their peoples nothing but violence, whether through civil and sectarian wars, or through the control of security regimes over various aspects of life, closing off any space for civil society by criminalizing human rights work, confiscating the local economy, drowning communities in foreign debt, poverty, and fragility, and fueling sectarian and ethnic divisions.
We bear witness to all of this, and we believe in the benefit of resisting and rejecting this fate by all possible means.
In these moments, war opens the doors to chaos and fear, and with it creeps hatred that targets human rights, particularly the rights of women, feminists, and gender and sexual diversity. Subsequently, we call on feminist and human rights communities in the region to unite at the local and regional levels, prepare for prolonged crises, strengthen personal and collective safety practices, invest in political and practical protection strategies, and confront all those who seek to exclude or silence us.
Long live the struggles of our peoples, and long live the struggles of the feminists among our peoples, who have never compromised before and will not compromise now!
