This March 8 we commemorate, we resist, we reclaim, and we restore

More than 160 children — many of them young schoolgirls — were killed when a school was  bombed. Let that sit with us for a moment. 

As we approach International Women’s Day – March 8, this is not a moment that allows for  celebration alone. Across the world, women and girls are living through intensifying violence,  deprivation, and erasure driven by the interlocking forces of patriarchy, imperialism, and rising  authoritarianism. 

Women are dying in hospitals without medicines, without food, without safety. In places marked by  war, occupation, and conflict — Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Iran, and many other regions — women and young girls are being bombed, displaced, and pushed to the very edges of survival.  These are not random tragedies. They are the direct and deliberate consequences of imperialism — of extraction, domination, and the destruction of peoples who dare to claim sovereignty over their  lands and lives. We also stand with women bearing the devastating consequences of local and ethnic  conflicts, whose suffering is too often invisible to the world. 

Across these contexts, gender-based violence is escalating — in homes, in workplaces, in refugee  camps, in conflict zones, and in digital spaces. Sexual violence continues to be used as a weapon of  war. Domestic violence, trafficking, forced marriage, and state-enabled violence remain pervasive  and under-addressed. For many women and girls, violence is not an isolated act but a continuum  that shapes their daily lives. 

At the same time, migrant and refugee women are exploited in the shadows of the global economy  — an economy built on imperial logics that move capital freely while caging human beings. Women  in informal and labour-intensive sectors face precarity, insecurity, and denial of basic protections,  which can lead to increased vulnerability to violence and exploitation in both their workplaces and  communities. LGBTQI+ individuals and those with diverse gender identities face criminalisation,  state persecution, and systemic discrimination increasingly weaponised by authoritarian regimes to  consolidate power and suppress dissent. Women with disabilities are frequently excluded from  services and protections. Indigenous women, racialised women, and migrant and ethnic minority  women continue to experience layers of structural violence and marginalisation. 

These realities unfold as anti-gender movements — many of them funded, organised, and  emboldened by authoritarian political projects gain influence, reshaping policies, dismantling  protections, and weakening commitments to gender justice, which ultimately exacerbates the  vulnerabilities faced by women with disabilities and other marginalised groups. Sexual and  reproductive health and rights are under sustained attack. Millions of women continue to be denied  access to contraception, maternal health services, and safe and legal abortion. 

Cuts to public health spending and international aid are worsening these conditions. We name this  clearly: the defunding of women’s rights and health systems is not simply austerity — it is imperial  policy in action. When governments and global powers withdraw resources, the consequences are  immediate and devastating: underfunded systems to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, inadequate reproductive health services, and the denial of life-saving care. 

Budgets are not neutral. They reflect priorities.

Governments must recognise that ending gender-based violence and ensuring universal access to  sexual and reproductive health services — including safe abortions — requires sustained public  investment. This means strengthening public health systems, ensuring comprehensive care for  survivors of violence, expanding access to contraception and abortion services, and supporting  community-based organisations that provide critical frontline support. 

In this moment, we express solidarity with the women across the world, particularly of Palestine,  Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran, who today face the devastating consequences of  war, occupation, blockades, and geopolitical violence rooted in imperial aggression. Within their  communities and movements, they continue to organise, resist, and defend life, dignity, and  sovereignty. They inspire us. 

Women across the world have always raised their voices against wars, occupations, and systems of  domination. Our struggles are deeply interconnected and they are everywhere. In every country,  women face the compounding weight of economic precarity, the devastating consequences of the  climate crisis, and the systematic denial of healthcare and essential services. Indigenous, racialised,  and low-income women bear the heaviest burden of environmental destruction and climate  collapse, even as they lead the frontlines of resistance. The feminist struggle is inseparable from the  anti-imperialist, anti-authoritarian, and climate justice struggle. There can be no true emancipation  of women without social justice, without economic equality, without climate justice, and without  dismantling the imperial and authoritarian structures that sustain exploitation and violence  wherever they operate, in conflict zones and in peacetime alike. 

Health is not merely a service, it is a political commitment. Every budget cut is a political choice.  Every policy that denies women their bodily autonomy, safety, and dignity is a political decision  rooted in the same logic that has always determined whose lives matter and whose do not. 

This March 8, we reaffirm our commitment to defending the rights to health, bodily autonomy,  safety, self-determination, social justice, and human dignity and to strengthening solidarity among  women everywhere in the struggle for societies free from violence, exploitation, imperialism,  authoritarianism, and discrimination. 

THIS MARCH 8, WE DO NOT JUST CELEBRATE — 
WE RESIST. WE RECLAIM. WE RESTORE. 

For every girl who was bombed in a schools and hospitals. 
For every woman whose silence was forced by fear, violence, or power — in homes, in communities,  and in public life.  
For every survivor abandoned by justice and denied care. 
For every woman criminalised for who she is, who she loves, or how she survives. For every woman resisting occupation, siege, and authoritarian rule. 
For every health worker targeted, bombed, or criminalised for choosing care over safety. For every woman, young girl still fighting — we stand with you. 

Statement from People’s Health Movement Global