As the U.S. public reels from Trump’s illegal military strikes in Iran, communities across the globe are feeling heightened fear, insecurity, and destabilization. This war has already proven particularly devastating for women and girls. In the first wave of joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, one missile struck a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran, killing at least 175 people including children. An estimated 170 children were in class at the time.
This devastating news was yet another reminder that in wars and conflicts, women and girls suffer disproportionately. In honor of International Women’s Day, we must amplify the call to challenge wars and militarism.
Even before Trump’s strikes on Iran, women and girls were experiencing historic levels of insecurity due to wars and militarism. The United Nations has warned that women are living at the highest risk, based on proximity to deadly conflict since the 1990s. In the past two years, civilian casualties among women and children have quadrupled, and conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87 percent.
In the coming weeks, if the United States shows no sign of deescalating in Iran, the impact on women in Iran will be ever more disastrous. Meanwhile, women in Gaza continue to suffer from mass starvation, violence, and abuse, women in Sudan suffer from ongoing sexual violence, displacement, and starvation, and women in Cuba struggle to procure resources for pre-natal health due to escalating U.S. blockades.
As a Korea peace activist, I have seen how the history of the U.S. forever war in Korea has laid the blueprint for wars waged globally and how women’s resistance to war has shaped the International Women’s Day we celebrate today.
In 1950, President Truman bypassed Congress to begin what he then called a “police action” in Korea, marking the first time a U.S. president authorized large-scale overseas combat without congressional approval and setting a precedent. The State Department also published what would become a foundational document, NSC-68, justifying massive military buildup for aggressive containment of communism and Soviet influence.
All subsequent U.S. presidents inherited this legacy: Lyndon B. Johnson in Vietnam, Richard Nixon in Cambodia, Ronald Reagan in Libya, Bill Clinton in Yugoslavia, Barack Obama in Libya, and the list goes on. Trump’s actions in Venezuela and Iran—while an escalation—are enabled by this long legacy of overseas U.S. interventions without congressional oversight or approval.
The costs of these decisions are catastrophic and have made all women across the world less secure. In the case of Korea, women are still bearing the immense costs of war. Landmines and unexploded ordnance remnants in the Demilitarized Zone continue to harm women in particular, who are often responsible for agricultural labor in the affected areas. An estimated million Korean women have also suffered harm from decades of militarized sex trade orchestrated by the U.S. military and the South Korean government. And finally, women in North Korea face the impacts of ongoing sanctions that exacerbate women’s economic vulnerabilities and deny women access to critical supplies for maternal health.
These histories feature many atrocities, but they also showcase important examples of resistance. In the 1950s, global women peace leaders proved instrumental in exposing the horrific experiences of Korean women due to the ongoing war. Due to their reporting, international awareness of the atrocities in Korea rose.
These women leaders went on to spearhead the UN Initiative to mark International Women’s Day and to designate 1975 as International Women’s Year. Inspired by this activism, women can and must continue to take stands against wars. For this year’s International Women’s Day, over 100 global women leaders and organizations demanded that the United States take accountability for the decades of the U.S. military’s harm and abuse of women and girls in Korea. In drawing attention to this legacy, these activists show that no wars—even those deemed successful by U.S. policymakers—make women or girls safer or more secure.
Women are facing an increasingly dire future. The United States has systematically divested from aid and social services as well as diplomacy efforts globally. As social services are cut in the United States, military spending is skyrocketing. The U.S. military budget has reach $1 trillion military budget, with likely increases for continued strikes on Iran.
This madness must end. Trump’s latest actions in Iran should be a wake-up call for the public about the larger issues that have long plagued U.S. democracy at the expense of women and girls both at home and abroad. On International Women’s Day, let’s follow the example of the generations of women past who have boldly and courageously called for an end to wars, and fight for a better world for ourselves and future generations.