Thirteen-year-old Mona remembers the precise moment the second airstrike hit her family's building in Gaza. She was on the sixth floor when they struck the seventh - her uncle's apartment. Her uncle's wife screamed for her children. Mona rushed to help, and then they fired the second shell. That's when her mother, sister and brother were killed. Mona survived with a missing leg and a demolished home, which is a pretty grim way to illustrate a data point.
As the UN marks Protection of Civilians Week, it notes that the number of active conflicts across the world is at its highest since 1946. Wars are getting longer, meaner, and are increasingly fought in residential neighborhoods rather than, say, an empty field where nobody lives. Homes, schools, hospitals and shelters are being destroyed, because apparently the concept of a safe space is now considered unfair advantage.
While bombs don't technically discriminate by gender, the aftermath certainly does. The UN reports that 37,000 civilians were killed across 20 armed conflicts in 2025, with nearly one in five victims being women. Women and girls are more likely to be displaced, kicked out of school or work, cut off from healthcare, and exposed to sexual violence, hunger and extreme poverty. Basically, war gives them all the worst parts of a dystopian novel.
In Gaza specifically, 38,000 women and girls had been killed by December 2025, even as ceasefire efforts continued. Residential buildings accounted for more than 95 per cent of recorded infrastructure damage, because apparently the strategy is to bomb where people sleep. The UN verified more than 9,300 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2025 - more than double the previous year - though officials admit the real number is probably much higher, because survivors often don't report it. Women and girls account for more than 95 per cent of those cases.
In Sudan, now in its fourth year of war, the number of women and girls needing support after gender-based violence has nearly doubled in two years and quadrupled since the conflict began. Women are being attacked in their homes and while searching for food, water and medical care - you know, basic necessities that shouldn't require a security detail.
Conflict is also driving mass displacement. By the end of 2024, more than 123 million people had been forcibly displaced worldwide because of war, violence and persecution. Women and girls fleeing conflict often face overcrowded shelters, separation from family members, exploitation and repeated displacement. In Gaza, the UN reported that 94 per cent of hospitals had been damaged or destroyed by December 2025, leaving women to give birth without adequate medical care and injured civilians struggling to access treatment. Nearly 700,000 women and girls were unable to properly manage menstruation due to shortages of sanitary supplies and unsafe living conditions.
The psychological toll is also immense. Women in countries including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon are facing widespread depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, often with little access to mental health services.
Despite carrying much of the burden of survival during war, women remain largely excluded from peace negotiations and political decision-making. Globally, women make up only seven per cent of negotiators and 14 per cent of mediators in formal peace processes. Yet women continue to lead survival and recovery efforts in conflict zones by running community kitchens, supporting displaced families, rebuilding livelihoods and advocating for peace. The UN warns that without greater protection, funding and inclusion for women and girls, modern warfare will continue to deepen inequality and devastate generations already struggling to survive.