Violence Against Women takes many forms – domestic violence (intimate partner violence) occurs at alarming rates all over the world and has economic, psychological and physical impacts on women and their families. Our culture globally is shaped by intense forms of militarization, occupation, and war and domestic violence is rooted in the culture that is created by these systems which perpetuate violence and normalize it. Around the world millions of women are at high risk for femicide – not only because of abuse in the home, but because the neoliberal economic system does not ensure that infrastructure is built, or services are provided to keep women safe. Our vulnerability as women is not our fault – but in fact is part of the design of a system which sees women as collateral damage or and “untapped resource” rather than as a pivotal part of society and its functioning.

Today, imperialist wars rage throughout the world to secure control of land, natural resources. The US and other powerful states including the UK, Russia, China, Japan and countries in Western Europe, use war and occupation to facilitate destructive resource extraction for geopolitical interests, or more covertly through military intervention and support to other repressive states in the name “peace”, “security” and “fighting terrorism”. In reality, these wars are waged in the name of corporate greed, war profiteering, and finding new global markets to increase super-profits for monopoly capitalists.

Today the US is waging war on three fronts. In the Middle East, where it has partnered with Saudi Arabia and Israel against Palestine and Iran; In Europe, where it uses NATO to advance its political interests against Russia; and in the Indo-Pacific Region, where it’s “pivot to Asia” has secured an increased number of military bases and new military alliances (such as the QUAD, AUKUS, and the new alliance between the US, South Korea and Japan). The Indo-Pacific is the US’s main target for advancing US led war – as it prepares for war with China.

The United States remains the number one imperialist power in the world today. Through excessive military funding, weapons development, and global alliances, the United States has made it clear that its number one priority is global domination through direct and indirect means. There are over 750 US military bases spread around the world, with the US boasting over 2,000 military-related properties around the world. The US spends more on its military budget than the next 10 countries combined. This domination through imperial control primarily serves the interests of the ruling elite. Under the global pandemic we saw countless governments respond to the health crisis with guns and goons rather than with public health policies.

2022 marked the onset of the war in Ukraine, and we have seen the continued brutality of the occupation of Palestine, and imperialist-led attacks on Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and countless other countries. Women continue to be at the forefront of these struggles and persistently resist these imperialist attacks against them and their communities. IWA calls on all women to oppose all wars of aggression and militarization perpetuated by US imperialism.

Each year the United States increases its military spending budget – ensuring that its military power remains unrivaled and unchallenged. At the same time that money is being pumped into military budgets, aid packages and joint training excersizes – women’s situation is becoming more and more dire. Women are unable to overcome the challenges they face due to war and militarization due to their lack of funding for social services and excessive funding for war. It is for this reason that women must organize in their communities against wars of aggression and foreign intervention.

War destroys opportunities for economic development and the advancement of women’s rights and therefore has sweeping economic impacts on women and their families. In times of war it is often men who are forced to leave their families to “fight and defend” their homes – as a result women are left to take care of their families and support the local economy by filling in for absent men.

Rates of domestic violence and human trafficking also commonly spike during times of conflict due to rising instability, poverty, and a weakening rule of law. These issues remain prominent in areas with foreign military bases. In instances of violence against women at the hands of their foreign military – servicemen are protected by their home country and can act with impunity.

In the rural areas of the world – peasant, rural and indigenous women are displaced by military forces who are charged with protecting corporate projects such as open pit mining and plantation-style agricultural development. Peasant women already struggle due to lack of national independence and industry to meet the needs of their families – the presence of militarized forces driving them off their land exacerbates migrant crises and enacts extreme violence on their communities.

Across the globe, systemic sexual violence against women and girls is often used as a war tactic to destabilize and terrorize communities. In 2020, the United Nations verified 2,500 cases of conflict-related sexual violence (committed mostly against women and girls) in 18 countries. In Afghanistan, 62% of women have experienced all three forms of gender-based violence: psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. An estimated 1 in 5 female refugees living in humanitarian settings has experienced sexual violence and its consequences, including trauma, stigma, poverty, and unwanted pregnancy.

Historically, during WWII the Japanese imperial army used between 50,000-200,000 women and girls as sexual slaves, widely known as “Comfort Women”. Today, the US military authorizes and regulates the trafficking and prostitution of poor women and girls to American soldiers near their overseas military bases.

In the face of militarization and occupation those who resist and fight against their occupier are arrested and detained. Women human rights defenders are at an increased risk for imprisonment, sexual harassment, rape and death. Many women who are detained are separated from family and unable to provide the day-to-day support they need. This negatively impacts the wellbeing of their families who are often intimidated by state forces as well.

Women’s liberation cannot be achieved without women engaging in the anti-war movement. The atrocities of war have made a dramatic impact on women’s role in society, and the anti-war movement has become a vehicle for women to take active political action. Women have resisted war for as long as it has existed, and play an integral role in opposing all forms of imperialist violence.

Women must take an active role in opposing all wars of aggression, as more and more women are increasingly victimized in times of conflict, through war time injury, rape, displacement and even death.

Wars of national liberation from imperialist domination play a crucial role in building the anti-war movement and in crushing and dismantling the imperialist powers. More and more, women are resisting and defending their lands and families, and pushing forward the anti-imperialist struggle to oppose all wars of aggression as they take up arms in their respective national liberation struggles.