On 08 March 2024, as we mark International Women’s Day, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) stands in solidarity with all women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who face challenges to their physical safety, holistic security and well-being on a daily basis while defending their basic rights to existence and activism. As we mark this day, we want to celebrate the efforts and achievements of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in the MENA region despite the contexts they are operating in. Whether in authoritarian or conflict settings, they still endeavour to survive, participate and work towards more rights while the means and resources towards their protection remain minimal.

This day is celebrated internationally today under the theme of “Invest in Women”. However, the international community must invest in women’s rights and protection and wellbeing as they are the main means to ensure their sustainable work towards equal participation and more rights without fear of any physical or psychological repercussions.

Today we particularly mourn the death of over 9000 women killed in Gaza in plain sight of the international community, including WHRDs, academics, doctors, journalists and many mothers. They are among over 30,000 Palestinians killed, including a disproportionate number of children. We call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire.

In Saudi Arabia, academic Salma Al-Shehab remains in prison for over three years, after she was sentenced to 27 years in prison solely for tweets she published in support of women’s rights, including tweeting about woman human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul during her detention. Women of academia such as Al-Shehab are among the many women ending up in prison for practicing their rights to freedom of expression.

In Bahrain, Bahraini-Danish human rights campaigner Maryam Al-Khawaja, ​​who was sentenced in absentia to prisonfor her human rights activism in Bahrain, was banned from boarding her flight to visit her country where her father Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is imprisoned for life. She announced publicly in a video that she has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, stage 3 blood cancer, and despite her sickness, was beginning a series of sit-ins in front of the Danish Prime Minister’s office in Copenhagen with demands for freedom for her father and an end to the war in Gaza.

In Yemen, WHRD Fatima Saleh Al-Arwali faces the death penalty based on arbitrary chargesmade apparently in retaliation for her human rights work, including defending women’s and children’s rights. The 35-year-old defender, who is the head of the Al-Habitat Organisation for Human Rights Development, was arrested on 14 August 2022 at Al-Hawban checkpoint while she was traveling from Sana’a to the city of Aden.

GCHR is still mourning the untimely loss of Moroccan woman human rights defender Bouchra Chetouani, who died of cancer on 11 January 2024. A member of our network, Chetouani participated in GCHR activities and brought joy to all who knew her. Chetouani, a presenter at Radio Joussour, was also educational coordinator at Association ANIR d’Aide aux Enfants en Situation Difficile (Aid to Children in Difficult Situations) and National Coordinator and founding member of Groupe des Jeunes Femmes pour la Démocratie (Group of Young Women for Democracy).

In Syria, women’s rights activist Heba Suhaib Haj Arif was assassinated brutally on 27 February 2024 in her homein the city of Bazaa in the eastern countryside of Aleppo Governorate. Local sources reported that she was hanged, while other reports stated that she was strangled to death for her activism and defying the system. Haj Arif was a member of the Syrian Women’s Network, and previously worked as a member of the Local Council of the city of Bazaa in May 2023, before she was forced to resign. She is married, a mother of two children, and lived with her husband in the city of Baza’a. Before her murder, she worked as the director of the boys’ department of a school affiliated with the organisation Yeni Adam, which means “the new step” in Arabic.

GCHR expresses its deep sorrow over the killing and loss of WHRDs and sends its deep condolences to their family and colleagues.

GCHR’s WHRDs Programme Manager Weaam Youssef reiterates: “We definitely need to keep investing in women, based on what women really need and want. In a changing world, we need to change our views on what investment in women looks like.” She added, “We need to invest in holistic security and safety of WHRDs, and ensure that they are supported by funds, time and spaces to work collectively, acknowledging the very restrictive civic spaces they navigate every day.”

Finally, GCHR’s WHRDs Programme invites WHRDs in MENA to celebrate having each other, and the solidarity that keeps the movement going and achieving its goals despite all odds. While we call on the international community to moblise and invigorate the right supports to effectively invest in women, based on what they are asking for.