It is with immense sadness and grief that we in the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) family, express our condolences for the passing of our dear sister, friend and colleague Roza Eftekhari on July 20, 2021, due to ovarian cancer.
Roza was among the founding members of WASL in 2016, enthusiastically supporting our first collective statement and the vision and values that shaped and have driven our community. A renowned journalist and figure in the Iranian women’s movement, as Managing Editor of the famous Zanan magazine, she created a space for dialogue and common ground between secular and religious voices addressing critical issues of gender equality and human rights.
“We need a special intervention, we need our country back, it’s becoming lawless”, warns women’s rights and peace activist, Hamsatu Allamin, WASL member and Founder of Allamin Foundation. The situation in northeast and northwest Nigeria demands urgent international attention, not only as a matter of humanitarian urgency but also for its impact on international peace and security.
Allamin Foundation support returnees and survivors of abduction and forced marriage. The foundation works to significantly reduce the entrenched culture of silence suffered by returnees in Nigeria and empower stakeholders to manage conflicts and grievances nonviolently.
Long-time Tunisian peace activist and academic Khedija Arfaoui speaks about her work, peace in the Middle East, and women’s pivotal role in change.
By Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini
For those of us who ever feel conflicted about the United Nations, the past month has been an exercise in managing absurd cognitive dissonance.