To ensure that women’s work at the frontlines is valued and understood, it is essential for their experiences to be amplified

Commentaries

A Better Peace for Afghan Women

An Op-Ed by Malalai Habibi and Helena Grönberg discussing the ongoing Afghanistan peace talks, and the international community’s obligation to ensure an inclusive and gender-responsive processes.

Women, Peace and Security in the Time of Corona

An op-ed by Sanam Naraghi Anderlini about the gendered impact of COVID-19, and the relevance of the WPS agenda.

US WPS Agenda: Not Just a Foreign Policy

Stacey Schamber discusses the potential of US Women, Peace and Security Act to transform the US’s role in the world and stresses the need to widen the lens of the WPS policies and the Act to include the domestic US context.

The War Whisperers, Their Successful Iraq War, And The Targeting Of Iran

An op-ed by Sanam Naraghi Anderlini addressing the Iraq war and the targeting of Iran through the lens of regional geopolitics.
“The U.S. should be wary of these [war] whisperers, for while it foots the bill and the world pays for unknowable and uncontainable consequences, others will reap the reward.”

Did a Backlash Against Trump Trigger Historic Highs for US Women in Politics?

Thalif Deen discusses the reasons behind the dramatic increase in US women legislators voted into office last November and the historic high of women candidates for the 2020 presidential elections, with comments from ICAN’s ED Sanam Naraghi Anderlini.

Syrian Women and the Peace Process: An Argument for Inclusion

By Monica Makar
How lessons learned from Bosnia’s post-conflict reconstruction can be applied to Syria.

Resuming Military Aid To Egypt: In US National Interest?

By Rana Allam
The Trump admin is releasing $195 million in military aid to Egypt that was previously withheld over human rights concerns. Have these concerns been alleviated over the past year? Or has the Egyptian government’s PR machine garnered results?

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Features

Abductees’ Mothers Association: On the Front Lines of Yemen’s Prisoner Swap

On the morning of Friday 16th October, the Abductees’ Mothers Association celebrated a major victory when Yemen’s warring parties completed the largest prisoner exchange in the history of the five-and-a-half-year long conflict. In a two-day process, 1,056 individuals held by both the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government were released and transferred home, facilitated by the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC). The Abductees’ Mothers Association has been the most prominent voice in calling for the release of abductees and has been instrumental in facilitating talks on the issue. For many years, this coalition of mothers has been the only hope for Yemen’s forcibly disappeared.

Despite Tragedy, Peacebuilder Khedija Arfaoui Remains Resilient

On September 7, 2020, a Turkish court sentenced a man to life in prison for carrying out the Istanbul nightclub attack on New Years Day in 2017. 39 people lost their lives in the early hours of that day—including  Dr.  Khedijah  Arfaoui’s son and daughter-in-law, Mohamed and Senda. Debates surrounding a  moratorium on the death penalty have  re-surfaced  in Tunisia but Arfaoui continues to advocate for non-violence and remains opposed to the death penalty. Read the full story.

Pakistani peacebuilder, Bushra Hyder, fighting off call for jihad for Rohingya

As news and images of the Burmese military’s attacks on the minority Muslim Rohingya community spread around the world, partner, Bushra Qadeem Hyder, a school principal and long time educationalist in Pakistan was among the first to see the impact on the students...

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Interviews

“We are not afraid, we are resisting”: A strong message from the Director of Myanmar’s Gender Equality Network

At 8pm every evening since February 1, 2021 hundreds of thousands across Myanmar bang pots and pans to demonstrate their non-violent resistance to the military coup. This symbolic act is part of the Red Ribbon campaign, a nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement. The movement’s message is clear, explains May Sabe Phyu, Director of the Gender Equality Network (GEN) and a member of WASL: “We are not afraid; we are resisting the coup.”

“Let us go where the guns are loud”: How Esther Omam Builds Peace in Cameroon

“Women peacebuilders run to the problem when everyone else is running away,” said ICAN’s CEO and Founder, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. This statement could not be truer of award-winning Cameroonian peacebuilder, Esther Omam. Esther’s career has seen her go from development worker to humanitarian responder to mediator and peacebuilder, in the South-West region of Cameroon. Esther has negotiated humanitarian access into some of the most remote and dangerous pockets of the Anglophone Crisis and in 2019, she successfully persuaded key non-state armed group leaders to lift a three-year school ban.

Peace Heroes: Najlaa El Sheikh Helps Syrian Women Refugees Become Business Owners

“I often dream the jasmine returns to Syria to decorate and perfume our streets.”
As the Syrian regime rained barrel bombs on her hometown in Syria, Najlaa and her family were forced to flee to Turkey where she established the first organization led by a Syrian woman to help other women refugees with literacy, economic empowerment, and psychosocial support.
Peace Hero Najlaa El Sheikh speaks to ICAN about her journey, her work, and her dreams.

Peace Heroes: Muna Luqman and the Role of Women in War-Stricken Yemen

We spoke to Yemeni peace activist Muna Luqman, co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network and member of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL), about the war in Yemen, its devastating ramifications, and about the strength of Yemeni women in the face of this destruction.

Peace Heroes: Indonesia’s Mira Kusumarini Shows How Reintegrating Ex-extremists is Done

Mira Kusumarini talks to ICAN about C-SAVE’s efforts to alter the lives of returnees and prepare their communities to accept them.

Peace Heroes: Why Nancy Yammout Met with Extremists in Lebanese Prisons

Nancy Yammout speaks to ICAN about Rescue Me’s efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate prisoners found guilty of terrorism —and how, over nine years, they’ve engaged with some 680 prisoners, and been pivotal in blocking their re-recruitment into terror groups.

ICAN’s Sanam Naraghi Anderlini became a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

This special honour was given to Ms. Anderlini in recognition of her work and for services to international peacebuilding and women’s rights.

WASL Partner Visaka Dharmadasa’s Efforts to Include More Women in Sri Lanka’s Peacekeeping

WASL partner Visaka Dharmadasa, founder of the Association of War Affected Women (AWAW) was featured in an article reporting on Sri Lanka’s efforts to include more women in its military. ICAN, in partnership with the Permanent mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN and AWAW, hosted a panel on “Increasing Women in UN Peacekeeping” in October 2017, and Visaka played a key role in highlighting the need to hold a follow up seminar in Colombo discussing setting a quota of women in the Sri Lankan military and in peacekeeping missions.

ICAN’s Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini and Colleagues Win Democracy In Action Award

During their production of “Feminist Global Advocacy: Elections 2016,” Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini and fellow human rights activists discuss the question: whose lives matter?