International Women¡¯s Day 2025: For ALL Women and Girls: Rights, Equality, an Empowerment
Gender equality is fundamental to strengthening global peace and security. Integrating women¡¯s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in counter-terrorism (CT) and preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE) enhances the effectiveness and sustainability of security policies and programmes. Ensuring a gender-responsive, human rights-based approach is essential to addressing the diverse impacts of terrorism.
The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) recognizes that terrorism and counter-terrorism measures impact women, men, girls, and boys differently and is committed to integrating the needs and strengthening the participation of women and girls through counter-terrorism measures, while amplifying their voices.
Guided by its Gender Mainstreaming Policy and Action Plan first launched in 2022, UNOCT supports women and girls with the skills, knowledge, and opportunities needed to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism conducive to terrorism within their communities. However, sustained investment ¨C both financial and institutional ¨C is necessary to ensure their full participation and leadership in peace and security efforts.
International Women¡¯s Day
On International Women¡¯s Day 2025 (#IWD2025), marked under the theme ¡°For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.¡±, UNOCT celebrates the progress made over the past 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, while reaffirming its commitment to advancing gender equality, promoting women¡¯s leadership, and fostering inclusive approaches in counter-terrorism.
The stories below highlight the contributions made by women and girls in the fight against terrorism and reaffirm UNOCT¡¯s dedication to invest in women through its programmes and activities as part of a gender-responsive approach to counter-terrorism.
Salwa Mahmoud
¡°Theatre is not just art¡ªit is a tool to dismantle violent extremist narratives and empower communities to stand against radicalization,¡±
As a youth community leader in Kenya, Salwa Mahmoud is committed to preventing and countering violent extremism by empowering women, promoting social cohesion, and challenging extremist narratives. Growing up with a single mother, she saw how economic hardship, exclusion, and gender-based violence made women and girls more vulnerable to radicalization, fueling her dedication to counterterrorism efforts.
Her participation in the UNOCT Global PCVE Programme¡¯s Youth Engagement and Empowerment Program (YEEP) strengthened her focus on gender-sensitive approaches to counterterrorism. Through YEEP, she has worked to address economic vulnerabilities, gender inequalities, and other drivers of violent extremism by promoting community-led solutions and policy advocacy. This has reinforced her efforts to engage women and youth in resilience-building initiatives like community theatre to counter radicalization at the grassroots level.
By integrating cultural preservation and economic empowerment, Salwa ensures that women are not just resilient¡ªbut active leaders in preventing and countering violent extremism and fostering lasting peace.
Glacy Tabirara
"As a woman in law enforcement, I want to break barriers and show that women¡¯s leadership and expertise are critical to security. The field is changing, and I hope to inspire more women to take on key roles in investigations, prosecutions, and policymaking."
A prosecutor with the Department of Justice of the Philippines, Glacy has dedicated her career to countering terrorism and disrupting illicit financial networks. Her passion for justice led her to specialize in the financing of terrorism, recognizing its role in sustaining global threats.
Through her participation in the UNOCT Countering Terrorist Travel Programme, she has seen progress in women¡¯s inclusion in financial intelligence, border security, and counterterrorism leadership. Glacy calls for continuous learning, specialization in security, and strong networks, alongside expanding gender-inclusive policies and leadership opportunities to build a more effective, representative security sector.
Dr. Fathima Azmiya
¡°Most local change-makers are women, yet their voices remain unheard at policy tables. Gender parity efforts often reduce women to a numbers game, privileging a few elite voices. We must recognize and uplift local women as experts in CT/PCVE.¡±
An academic and researcher at the Technical University of Mombasa, Dr. Fathima Azmiya is driven by her firsthand experiences growing up amid insurgency in Sri Lanka and working in Kenya. Her research focuses on gender dynamics in radicalization, recruitment, and mobilization into terrorist groups.
Through initiatives like , Dr. Azmiya underlines how creating spaces, whether digital or in-person, helps gender experts exchange insights and develop gender-responsive approaches to CT/PCVE, ultimately contributing to long-term peace and security.