NADA vows to combat violence against women, calls for raising awareness

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, marked annually on November 25, the Regional Women’s Alliance in the Middle East and North Africa (NADA) issued a written statement.

The statement read: “On the 25th of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we honor the memory of the victims of dominant male violence and renew our vow to carry on their legacy by escalating the struggle against violence, whatever the cost. Violence against women is not a set of isolated incidents, but a system rooted in male domination across power, legislation, the economy, and social heritage, with profound physical and psychological consequences.”

The statement explained that women face multiple forms of physical and psychological violence, which have, in many cases, become normalized and invisible in daily life, affecting women from all ages and all social, professional, religious, and ethnic backgrounds.

The alliance added that 2025 has seen an unprecedented spike in violence against women amid wars and conflicts sweeping the world. Statistics indicate that 86,000 women were killed globally, 52,000 of them by family members or intimate partners, making the home, supposed to be a safe haven, the most dangerous place for women.

The NADA indicated that existing political systems, through their laws, policies, and practices, are among the root causes of organized violence against women, whether through amendments to personal status laws that deepen discrimination, crackdowns on women’s and civil activism, or restrictions on organizations concerned with women’s issues.

The statement noted: “The patriarchal state controls every detail of a woman’s life: what she wears, how she laughs, what she eats, whom she lives with, children’s lineage, and reproduction. It kills every woman who crosses these boundaries. Behind the lies of ‘suicide’ lies concealed male violence and the encouragement of gender-based violence. They may point fingers and put a few men on trial, but it is essential to recognize the mentality and international politics behind these cases. Have we witnessed a fair court that holds accountable genocide, displacement, poverty, rape, assassinations, and unjust laws?”

Despite women’s strong presence in social movements and protests, the statement stressed their continued exclusion from leadership roles and decision-making positions, while personal status laws across most of the region remain reflective of profound inequality and a tool to keep women in a position of dependency.

The statement highlighted that wars and conflicts constitute the most violent form of aggression against women, driven by economic and political interests that disregard human life, with women paying the highest price. The alliance called for building a just peace based on democracy, women’s freedom, and environmental justice.

The statement also addressed killings under the pretext of “passion” or “honor,” stressing the need to expose these pathological justifications, resist digital and online blackmail targeting women, and promote a culture of relationships built on respect and equality.

In the statement, the NADA called for:

– elevating awareness by strengthening training and education activities for women and young girls, while educating and transforming men, instilling the mindset and will for a shared life based on equality.

– intensifying efforts to stop massacres in Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and condemning the use of women’s bodies as battlegrounds and tools of repression.

– confronting the assassinations of female activists and death sentences issued against women fighters, because the right to life is a fundamental protected right.

– resisting anti-democratic policies targeting women’s organizations and human rights defenders.

– demanding the reform of personal status laws and urging governments to amend these laws to guarantee social justice and equal citizenship.

The alliance concluded its statement with a call to fill streets and squares in the struggle against violence, affirming that “no right is lost as long as it is demanded,” and that “the darker the night, the brighter the light will shine upon women.”

A-H

ANHA