Press and Publications

At a speech to the United Nations General Assembly today, President Obama looked back on his term and laid out the “course corrections” he suggested the world needs.

What we need is much more than a course correction — we need a feminist foreign policy. What would that look like? Here are some examples.
 

I can’t thank you enough. That’s because in just the space of three months, your support brought safe haven and security to 119 young women and girls who have escaped sexual slavery by ISIS. Thank you! 

The undersigned nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are writing to express our concern about the Government of Iraq’s policy prohibiting Iraqi NGOs from legally providing shelter to individuals and families fleeing conflict-related gender-based violence.

Today we face the prospect of a Syrian peace agreement with disappointment at its delay and frustration that, yet again, negotiators embrace a framework that ignores obligations under international law to include the participation of women civil society members. While the international community has mandated women's full and equal participation in all aspects of peace and security efforts through U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 and its subsequent resolutions, there remain significant barriers to the comprehensive implementation of the women, peace and security agenda in policy and practice.

While Amir Ashour was growing up in Iraq in the early 2000s, he knew homosexuality existed but he didn’t know much else about it. “Aside from my personal feelings wondering ‘why am I attracted to this person?’ when I was 10 or 11, I had my first experience when I was 16 or 17,” he said recently.

From the ongoing conflicts in Syria, Somalia, and South Sudan to the horrors committed by ISIL, we live in a world that is seemingly rife with violence and instability. What we don't see often enough is another truth: today's world is also filled with incredible stories of resilience that arc toward a more peaceful and stable world. This is why the Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG) set out to showcase this incredible and impactful work.

False claims that deny the impact of grassroots women's crisis responses are diverting much needed resources away from the very people making the best use of them.

Executive Director, Yifat Susskind, reflects on the late Michael Ratner, a MADRE friend and supporter. 

As the president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Yanar runs an “underground railroad” for women and LGBT people to escape ISIS sexual slavery and assassination. My trust in her is not a figure of speech but the fruit of long-term partnership between our organizations, forged through the years of US occupation, sectarian war and now ISIS.

Awaz’s fiery determination to make a difference is obvious the moment you meet her. “When I can’t help everyone,” she told us, “I feel it deeply in my heart.”

Human Rights groups came together at CUNY School of Law to discuss living as a woman and a non-gender conforming individual in Iraq under ISIS rule: “When Coming Out is a Death Sentence: Policy Strategies to Address the Persecution of Women & LGBT Persons by ISIS in Iraq”.