March 8, 2025, comes as women continue to suffer and struggle in war zones, displacement camps, and rural areas where poverty rates are high. Although the world followed at the end of last year the images of the release of detained women from the prisons of the oppressive Assad regime in Syria, and this coincided with the start of the ceasefire deal in Gaza in January, and the Sudanese army, one of the parties to the counter-revolution, regained control of Al Gazira region in Sudan, killing, destruction and looting are crimes that continue in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, and in various war zones.
Women in rural areas continue their daily struggle to ensure the basics of life for their families amid harsh capitalist impoverishment policies under the pretext of national development, without any guarantee of economic and social rights. The brutal exploitation of women’s labor continues, with no right to organize independent trade unions.
Reconstruction: Authoritarian and neoliberal interests
Reconstruction plans in Gaza and Syria are characterized by a complex overlap between the interests of far-right forces in Western countries, capitalists, and authoritarian regimes in the Arab/North African/Middle East region. These plans are based on neoliberal policies embedded in military and security frameworks to ensure the continued entanglement of capitalist interests. The discussion centers on infrastructure and real estate projects that benefit business alliances with authoritarian regimes, while ignoring the rehabilitation of agricultural land that was destroyed or deliberately contaminated during the conflicts.
But how will reconstruction take place after more than a year of Zionist destruction and annihilation of our people in Gaza, a grinding civil war in Sudan, more than a decade of devastation in Syria, fighting in Libya, and disruption in Yemen? Who will have the right to own the land that will go to the capitalists for “reconstruction” after the wars are over? Does the reconstruction process prioritize the rehabilitation of agricultural land, especially in the rural areas of Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza after it was deliberately burned and polluted during the war? The reconstruction scene is dominated by a network of capitalist and patriarchal interests that will exacerbate the suffering of women despite the oppression, rape, murder, and mass displacement they have faced.
Women’s resilience in the face of displacement and hunger
The resilience of women in displacement and war zones is evident in their resistance to famine and inhumane conditions amid difficult access to relief aid and lack of hospitalization for pregnant women. In Lebanon and displacement camps in Sudan, community kitchens have played a vital role in providing food despite the harsh conditions. The Zamzam camp in Darfur, for example, provides two meals a day for more than 10,000 displaced people, but food safety challenges remain due to a lack of water and clean equipment.
In Khartoum, women have resorted to home farming in the face of food shortages, reflecting their creativity in the face of hunger threatening their families.
Exploitation of female farm workers: Confronting capitalist hegemony
Away from areas of war and displacement, women working in agriculture suffer from capitalist exploitation in export agriculture, as a result of capital’s domination of value chains and linking them to the global market for profits, without fair rights for wages and workers and even without social protection. Despite these violations of rights, women take the initiative to fight against this exploitation, using all the means available to them in our societies, including the struggle within independent unions, coordinations, and women’s associations fighting against oppression. The experience of female agricultural workers in the Khemis Ait Amera region of Morocco is an example of resistance and organization.
Solidarity with women’s struggles: A call for joint action
On this day, March 8, 2025, we call for solidarity with every militant initiative or movement led by women in our region against capitalism and the dictates of its institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, which seek to suppress the voices of struggle and entrench capitalist exploitation and oppression of women.
We call on all struggle organizations to support these movements and initiatives, whether through solidarity, consultations, or publishing the stories of women who are struggling daily for a more just future.
Let’s stand in solidarity with their struggle
SIYADA Network: for a popular sovereignty over food systems and resources
