Seven women, four war zones: how gender violence became a weapon.

“ Violence against women is a universal language , but it is not inevitable.” This is what Loredana Grimaldi , vice president of UN Women Italy , says, denouncing how only 0.2% of development aid is allocated to combating this phenomenon. Gender violence is not limited to domestic walls: in armed conflicts it becomes a systematic weapon . In 2024, there were 135 theatres of war, 61 state-run (a record since 1946), and over 600 million people live in conflict zones. In 2023 alone, 4 out of 10 civilian victims were women, double compared to previous years. Documented cases of rape as a weapon of war have increased by 50%, reaching 3,700 , but the real figures could be much higher. Here are some testimonies and true stories of women who experience or have experienced forms of violence in contexts of war and crisis in Afghanistan , the Middle East , Sudan and Ukraine , where the UN agency operates.