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Pregnancy is hard enough without adding the fear and risk of bombardment. So, when the hostilities intensified in Kfarsir–Nabatieh, South Lebanon last month, 29-year-old pregnant mother Lama Chami made the courageous decision to flee. Likewise, Afaf Shoaib, a 29-year-old mother of two, was forced to flee her home in Baalbek, northeastern Lebanon, and arrived with her husband and children at Auberge Beity a month ago, in the dead of night.
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Amid the intensified armed conflict in Lebanon, women and girls are enduring unimaginable suffering. They need urgent shelter, winterization items, nutritious food, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, to be protected from gender-based violence, and have their rights and dignity guaranteed.
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As the conflict in South Lebanon continues to escalate, Israeli air strikes on the capital, South and other parts of the country are displacing increasing numbers of people and shifting migratory flows from cities and shelters in the country’s south, towards the more ill-prepared north.
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Nouhad Chebaro is among the 35 founding members of the Women’s Peacebuilding Network in Lebanon launched by UN Women. The network seeks to amplify its members’ contributions to inclusive and sustainable peacebuilding, and strengthen their leadership and participation through learning, exchange of expertise, networking and mutual support. She speaks to UN Women about her journey and efforts through the network.
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Fidaa Sahili is a humanitarian activist who has championed development, social change, active citizenship and youth empowerment in Baalbek-Hermel for more than two decades. She currently leads the Assi Association for Development and is managing a UN Women-supported project empowering women peacebuilders. Amid intensified Israeli military operations, several women involved in the project have been displaced. Those remaining have faced significant are continuing their work and maintaining communication with the displaced, despite limited resources, mobility and risks to their safety.
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Tamara Elzein is the first woman Secretary-General of the National Council for Scientific Research of Lebanon. She also held the role of President of the UNESCO Science Commission at its 42nd General Conference in November 2023. As a pioneering leader, she is trying to ensure the integration of environment and gender equality in the complex humanitarian emergency unfolding across Lebanon.
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In Tyre, South Lebanon, where clashes and attacks have been escalating across the Blue line and beyond since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza, women peacebuilders are among those being displaced. Fadia Jomaa is a journalist, environmental activist and mediator engaged in a UN Women regional project. Hers is one of ten local women’s mediation networks that are working to prevent and resolve conflicts and contribute to sustainable peace through policy change and community-level action.
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Amid escalating violence across Lebanon, three women mediators share their work and determination to support their communities. Violent clashes along the Blue Line have escalated, with strikes and violence spiraling across Lebanon in recent weeks, including in the heart of Beirut. Amid growing insecurity, UN Women teamed up with partners to leverage the role of local women mediators in South Lebanon in support of community-level humanitarian action.
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Intensified hostilities began in October 2023 and have escalated since 23 September 2024, disrupting women’s livelihoods in Lebanon and increasing their needs for protection, shelter, food, and health and cash assistance, according to a recent Gender Alert by UN Women.
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According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, between 8 October 2023 and 1 October 2024, a total of 1,575 people have lost their lives, including 297 women. Overall, there have been 10,835 casualties, of whom 2,110 women.
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As part of the ongoing collaboration between UN Women and the Lebanese Armed Forces, the first phase of a year-long series of workshops, spanning from September 2024 to September 2025, has been launched, they aim to enhance the integration of female soldiers into the various units of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
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Miray Mtanious, navigated separation, societal pressure and the challenges of single-motherhood at the age of 26. Last year, Miray joined the Women’s Protection Committee in Beirut. The Committee provides awareness-raising on gender-based violence, the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, and accountability to affected populations. Miray shares her story of personal transformation, liberating herself from societal constraints and becoming an inspiration for others facing similar struggles.
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Lebanon’s female labour force participation rate stood at a mere 28.7 per cent in 2022, notably lower than the corresponding rate for men (67 per cent). UN Women partnered with the NGO Acted to provide temporary employment opportunities for 300 women in four menstrual hygiene production facilities in Beirut, Saida, Tripoli and Bekaa. Among them was Ruba Rayya, in Bekaa, whose journey was marked by both difficulties and unexpected empowerment.
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Montaha Jaber, 55, has been living in the Bekaa region most of her life. Determined to gain independence and make ends meet, she took a job at UN Women and Acted’s new menstrual hygiene production facility, which was starting a new line producing quality and affordable women’s sanitary products. Trained as a manufacturer, Montaha reflects on her work and the mission of challenging social taboos around women’s reproductive health.
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Rima Al Hamra, 50, is the Director of the Hasbaya Development Services Center, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Social Affairs and is located in the South of Lebanon, where armed clashes have been witnessed along the Blue Line over the past several months. She is also one of 240 local women peacebuilders who are trained to become local community mediators, as part of UN Women’s “Women, Peace and Security in the Arab States Phase III” project, which is being implemented in partnership with the Professional Mediation Centre of Saint Joseph University (CPM-USJ) and International Alert, with generous support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.
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Gender-based violence remains a pervasive problem in Lebanon, impacting women and girls across various domains. Despite legal frameworks, cultural norms contribute to a culture of silence, making it challenging for survivors to seek help. In 2023, UN Women partnered with the local NGO KAFA (Enough) Violence & Exploitation to establish a women’s protection committee aimed at raising awareness about GBV, the protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and accountability to affected populations.
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The Government of Austria has contributed EUR 1,000,000 towards UN Women in Lebanon’s humanitarian efforts to support women and girls in South Lebanon impacted by the escalation in hostilities across the Blue Line. The financial assistance will be channeled into a project implemented by UN Women to enhance the resilience, self-reliance and leadership in humanitarian action of internally displaced women through access to comprehensive livelihood and protection services.
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The Women Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) is launching its fourth round of funding in Lebanon. The WPHF call for proposals will be focused on a) the protection of women and girls, and b) Peacebuilding & Recovery. This call for proposals also provides an opportunity for civil society organizations working on the implementation of commitments related to Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action (WPSHA) in Lebanon to apply for institutional funding that will be used to strengthen and sustain their capacities.
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In 2023, Suzan joined UN Women's established community kitchen within the Beddawi camp as an outreach worker, raising awareness on cooking on a budget and providing hot meals to families living in vulnerability as part of UN Women’s “Humanitarian Assistance to Women by Women: Women at Work to Reduce Period Poverty and Food Insecurity in the Lebanon Crisis” project, which aims to provide women with cash-for-work opportunities through the production and distribution of hot meals to families in need.
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Today on 8 March, International Women’s Day, the United Nations rallies behind the call to “Invest in women: Accelerate progress”, aligned with the priority theme for the upcoming 68th Commission on the Status of Women CSW68.