International Women’s Day arrives this year amidst a world marked by expanding conflict and deepening geopolitical instability. Armed conflict does more than increase violence against women. It systematically disrupts the delivery of women’s rights by destroying institutions, weakening legal protections, and undermining their access to health, education and economic opportunity. For instance, conflict erodes the basic right to safety and mobility. Public spaces become dangerous due to bombardment, armed patrols, and the threat of sexual violence and the movement of women and girls become restricted. In Gaza, repeated military operations have displaced much of the population into overcrowded shelters where privacy, sanitation and personal security are scarce. Yet, women hesitate to leave these shelters, even to seek medical care or humanitarian aid, because of the constant threat of violence.
Education is another casualty of war. Schools are destroyed, converted into military facilities or used as shelters for displaced civilians. Parents often withdraw girls from education due to fears for their safety. The long-term consequences are severe. Interrupted schooling limits women’s access to employment and economic independence. Conflicts across West Asia and eastern Europe have already produced cohorts of girls whose education has been repeatedly disrupted by displacement and insecurity. Reproductive, maternal and mental health services also deteriorate rapidly during armed conflict. Hospitals are damaged, medical supply chains collapse, and health personnel flee violence. Such conditions increase maternal mortality and expose women to untreated pregnancy complications apart from long-term health risks.
Economic rights also take a hit when war destroys livelihoods and social protection systems. Women frequently become heads of households after losing family members in conflict; yet they face limited access to employment, credit and property rights. In the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war, for example, tens of
thousands of Tamil women were forced to support families while confronting destroyed infrastructure, militarised environments, and restricted job opportunities. Many struggled to secure land ownership or rebuild economic stability. Similarly, in long-running conflicts, such disruptions become entrenched over time. The plight of women in Kashmir is a case in point. Widows and relatives of the missing often encounter legal barriers when seeking property rights, welfare benefits or justice.
At the same time, contemporary conflicts reveal a troubling tendency to frame military intervention as a pathway to women’s liberation. Recent narratives surrounding Iran illustrate how external powers — the aggressors — present war as beneficial for women while conveniently glossing over the civilian casualties and the institutional collapse that accompany armed confrontation. Such narratives obscure the reality that conflict restricts rather than advances women’s rights.
This year’s International Women’s Day should, therefore, prompt a broader recognition of how war undermines gender equality and halts the delivery of women’s rights in fundamental ways.
