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Women, Peace and Security Conflict Tracker: September Updates

September 16, 2026

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Our Women, Peace and Security Conflict Tracker combines real-time data points and original analysis to offer gender-sensitive insight into conflict dynamics across 27 countries. To see the complete analysis across all 27 countries monitored, please visit the WPS Conflict Tracker website and explore by country.

Spotlight: Palestinian Women Carry a Growing Burden Across Gaza and the West Bank

A new UN Women brief reveals a striking demographic shift in Gaza: 1 in 4 households are now headed by a woman, roughly double the pre-October 2023 level of around 1 in 9. Israel’s genocide in Gaza has devastated the population, and thousands more women now bear responsibility for caring for an estimated 86,290 households after family members have been killed, injured, detained, or gone missing. Women-headed households report more frequent displacement, higher rates of unmet financial and shelter needs, and heightened risks compared to male-headed households. Despite their role as managers of income and decision-makers for their households, women in Gaza remain largely excluded from decisions about their future.

In the West Bank, Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has documented what it describes as a coordinated system of abuses against Palestinians. In a September 2026 report, the organization outlines severe Israeli repression against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, including restrictions on freedom of movement, social and political repression, forced displacement, and sexual and gender-based violence—the effects of which uniquely impact Palestinian women and girls who already face heightened, gender-specific risks. Years of systemic assault on Palestinian life are now translating to record levels of violence and settlement expansion, which risk permanently removing Palestinians from their homes and cutting off access to healthcare, education, livelihoods, and places of worship—including recent attacks on Taybeh, the last remaining all-Christian village. West Bank violence has generated international condemnation, including the UK’s announcement of an import ban on goods produced in Israeli settlements and additional measures targeting settlement activity.

Risks & Opportunities 

The WPS Conflict Tracker analyzes and identifies current risks and opportunities—including new developments, upcoming events, or looming threats—for women in the 27 conflict-affected settings we monitor. Updates for September 2026 include: 

Afghanistan

• 5 Years of Taliban Rule Brings Devastation for Afghan Women: The Taliban continues to enact increasingly restrictive decrees limiting women’s rights and protections. Yet, despite exclusion from public life, Afghan women are playing critical roles in advancing peace, community resilience, and social cohesion.   
• Read GIWPS’s new report, Afghan Women Pursuing Peace Under Oppression
• See more analysis from our network: The Architecture of Oppression: Five Years of Taliban Rule, by Belquis Ahmadi

Colombia

• President De la Espriella Shuts Down Peace Talks: Colombia’s shift toward a more hardline security approach risks undermining the implementation of gender provisions in Colombia’s 2016 Peace Agreement. Supporters of negotiated peace face heightened risks; in August, activist and former congressional candidate Naylea Barros survived an assassination attempt after months of reported threats and harassment. 
• See reflections from our network on Protecting Women Environmental Defenders: Lessons from Colombia, by Juanita Serrano Zapata

Ethiopia

• Escalating Tensions Heighten Displacement and Gendered-Protection Risks: Growing insecurity in Ethiopia’s regions of Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia—coupled with instability across the Horn of Africa—are contributing to displacement and compounding risks for women and girls in communities still recovering from previous conflict. 

Haiti

• Haiti’s Gangs Commit Brutal Violence Against Women and Girls: As gangs expand their territorial control, women and girls face increasingly brutal violence, including killings, kidnappings, and rape amid widespread displacement and the breakdown of protective services.

Iran

• Four Years After Women, Life, Freedom Protests, Iranian Women Continue to Demand Their Rights: Women are defying compulsory hijab requirements and other forms of gendered-repression and control, continuing to demand greater rights, protections, and autonomy despite intensifying state repression.   
• As GIWPS Executive Director Melanne Verveer noted in a recent CNN interview, “The vital movement for equality, freedom, economic security and end to repression continues to resonate throughout society… the spirit of the people is there. The gap between the regime and the masses of people is enormous. They are not happy, to make an understatement, about the conditions in which they live and the repression they suffer from.”  

Myanmar

• Gendered Repression Restricts Women’s Activism and Humanitarian Access: As Myanmar’s military junta consolidates control following sham elections, it is employing gendered repression—including restrictions on menstrual products—and selective enforcement of laws to silence women and deter their participation in political and civic life. 

The Philippines 

• Women’s Representation Remains Limited After First BARMM Elections: Preliminary results from the BARMM’s first parliamentary elections– a major milestone given multiple years of postponements—indicate that women won only 15 percent of seats, reflecting persistent barriers to women’s equal representation despite a 30 percent gender quota for party nominees.

Sudan

• Justice System Fails Women Amid Sudan’s Deepening Humanitarian Crisis: As Sudanese women endure brutal sexual violence, exploitation, repeated displacement, and the collapse of essential services, the justice system is failing to provide adequate protection while imposing disproportionate punishments on women—including death by stoning—for alleged offenses under discriminatory laws. 
• See the full interview with Hala Al-Karib, regional director of SIHA Network

Syria

• Women Demand Meaningful Participation in Shaping the Country’s Future: Women remain underrepresented in Syria’s emerging political institutions, holding just 22 of 210 seats in the transitional People’s Assembly. Exclusion also extends to the security sector; there are no women in Syria’s new defence ministry, and members of the all-female Kurdish Women’s Protection Unit have reportedly been told there is no place for them in the military.

Ukraine

• More Women Join Ukraine’s Armed Forces as Civilian Harm Mounts: More than 75,000 women serve in Ukraine’s armed forces, including approximately 5,500 in combat roles—an increase of roughly 40 percent since before the full-scale invasion. This comes as July 2026 marked the deadliest month for civilians since the full-scale invasion began, as Russian attacks intensify across Ukraine. 
• Read GIWPS analysis on compensation for Ukraine’s war widows

Yemen

• Renewed Conflict Threatens Women and Girls: The resurgence of conflict in Yemen is driving widespread displacement, while Houthi territorial advances risk placing more women and girls under the group’s control and exposing them to heightened risks of gender-based restrictions and repression.