“We Canceled Silence”: How Local Peace Committees Rebuild Trust in Syria
Across Syria, communities are finding ways to reconnect after years of war through dialogue, storytelling, art, and collective action. Mobaderoon’s Local Peace Committees demonstrate why lasting peace begins within communities themselves.
The Odd Couple: Women Peacebuilders and Security Actors Bridging Positions, Building Trust
The WPS agenda has proven a vital entry point for women peacebuilders to engage with the security sector and build trust within affected communities. These efforts—often invisible—are contributing to the reform of the sector, reshaping local security environments and mitigating violence.
The War Against Ourselves: Afghan Women Peacebuilders’ Response to the Mental Health Crisis in Afghanistan
This case study describes the drivers of the mental health crisis in Afghanistan, its gendered and cultural dimensions, and the strategies used by Afghan women-led peacebuilding organizations to provide solutions. The authors conducted interviews with representatives of Afghan women-led peacebuilding organizations and thematic experts, which were complemented by a desk review of project documentation and […]
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ICAN and UMass Collaborate to Launch the UMass Mellon Liaison Fellowship 2023
ICAN and UMass Collaborate to Launch the UMass Mellon Liaison Fellowship 2023
10 August 2023
We are excited to announce the launch of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Mellon Liaison Fellowship at the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN).Organized by the UMass-Amherst World Studies Interdisciplinary Project(WSIP), and funded by the Mellon Foundation and the UMass-Amherst Provost’s Office, ICAN will host two distinguished UMass PhD Mellon Liaison Fellows in 2023. The Fellowship is linked to the WSIP Graduate Certificate in Decolonial Global Studies (DGS), and UMass PhD students from all departments, colleges, and schools were invited to apply.
ICAN offers UMass Mellon Fellows the opportunity to learn about both local women’s peacebuilding practices and the workings of a global, coalition-building, peacebuilding organization. Fellows meanwhile put their skills in research, writing, collaborative conceptualization, and relation-building at the service of a social-justice organization. In addition, the Fellowship enables UMass PhD students to build new networks, hone new skills, and explore future work in non-academic social-justice arenas.
We are thrilled to introduce the two 2023 UMass Mellon Liaison Fellows: Mariam Parvez Sheikh and Meenakshi Nair.
Mariam Parvez Sheikh is a PhD candidate at the College of Education, UMass. Her current research focuses on how young students in Pakistan’s higher education system produce alternative knowledge as they articulate links between their struggles within the university and movements such as feminism, climate justice and anti-capitalism. Mariam’s work examines how they expose gender, ethnic and class inequities through their struggle for social justice. She holds a master’s degree in Education and International Development from University College London (UCL), United Kingdom and a BSc. Hons. in Economics and Political Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Meenakshi Nair is a PhD student in English at UMass.She holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from SOAS, University of London and a BA in English and a diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi. She is interested in South Asian literature and postcolonial studies, with specific interests in cities and mobility, and multilingualism and literary translation.The languages she works with are English, Hindi and Urdu, and some Malayalam. Meenakshi formerly worked with Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP, Delhi). She is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and has poetry and short fiction published in The Alipore Post, VAYAVYA, and elsewhere.
Across Syria, communities are finding ways to reconnect after years of war through dialogue, storytelling, art, and collective action. Mobaderoon’s Local Peace Committees demonstrate why lasting peace begins within communities themselves.
ICAN FeaturedInnovative Peace FundMobaderoonOur StoriesStoriesWASL UpdatesWomen's Alliance for Security Leadership
Nina Potarska, a member of the ICAN-spearheaded Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership, is currently at sea with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian-led mission organized with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, en route to Gaza.
ICAN FeaturedOur StoriesStoriesWomen's Alliance for Security Leadership
مدينة البصرة في جنوب العراق، المدينة التي تضررت طويلا من الحرب وقلة الاستثمارات، تواجه تهديدات متزايدة بسبب خطاب الكراهية والتطرف وتآكل الثقة بين المواطنين والمؤسسات. وغالبا ما يقع الشباب -وخاصة الشابات- في قلب هذه التوترات، في عالم تتقاطع فيه المضايقات والتحرش الالكتروني مع الواقع. وفي مثل هذه البيئة، تتبنى جمعية الفردوس العراقية (الفردوس) نهجا جديدا […]
ICAN FeaturedOur StoriesStoriesWomen's Alliance for Security Leadership
The International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) Statement: The Escalating U.S.-Israeli War on Iran and its Regional Ramifications
Iraqi Al-Firdaws Society (Al-Firdaws) is taking a new approach to peacebuilding. Their project, Horizon: Promoting Community Peace, supported by ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund (IPF), brings together youth, local security forces, and civil society actors to address violent extremism through dialogue, education, and community-based action.
ICAN FeaturedOur StoriesStoriesWomen's Alliance for Security Leadership
Women peacebuilders often operate in some of the world’s most dangerous contexts—yet the security support available to them is frequently fragmented, repetitive, and short-term. Recognizing the need for a fundamentally different approach, ICAN conducted a holistic security assessment of its Afghan partners, including members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL). The result is the Holistic Security Menu: a co-designed, partner-driven model that provides practical and sustainable security support—on women peacebuilders’ […]
ICAN convened 20 members of WASL in Lisbon for the “Our Strategies, Our Peace” Writers’ Workshop. This unique gathering provided a secure and creative space for women peacebuilders to share their strategies, experience, expertise, and stories from conflict and crisis contexts.
On October 6, 2025, the U.N. Security Council holds its annual open debate on Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. Today, we are not issuing a new statement. Instead, we are honoring our community of women peacebuilders—who appeared before the Security Council throughout these 25 years, speaking for the millions they represent—by echoing their messages.
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In South Sudan, a nation where peace has long remained fragile and democratic progress uncertain, women are stepping forward to shape the future of their country. Long excluded from the corridors of power, they are forging their own movement for lasting change.
ICAN FeaturedInnovative Peace FundOur StoriesStoriesWomen's Alliance for Security Leadership
On behalf of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and members of the global Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL), we are honored to nominate Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
