As we pause to mark Memorial Day on Monday, I’m thinking about the women affected by war—whether they’re fighting on the front lines, working in the service as nurses, or civilians saddled with the consequences of wars started by men living in far-off lands who barely know they exist.
Research shows that women and girls face unique and acute impacts in armed conflict situations. For women on the ground in Iran, who are already subject to increased policing at the hands of their own government, these impacts are multiplied. Since 165 girls were killed by an American missile in the bombing of an elementary school earlier this year, thousands more women and girls have continued to be displaced and killed in airstrikes. And as the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security points out, women also face increased environmental tolls from the bombing of oil and gas infrastructure—which causes pollution that can lead to health issues and reproductive complications.
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