*WILPF Statement 2 March 2026 reposted from WILPF International
Over the past 48 hours, the world has witnessed a dramatic escalation of violence after the United States and Israel launched an unlawful military campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran, resulting so far in the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, other Iranian officials, and hundreds of civilians. An airstrike on a girls’ school in Minab alone is said to have killed more than 100 children and teachers. In response, the Iranian government has launched missile and drone attacks on Israeli, Gulf, and US military targets, including in other State territories. The conflict has expanded rapidly beyond Iran’s borders, with casualties on all sides, marking an unprecedented new chapter in US–Iran–Israel hostilities. It is, nevertheless, a continued trend of escalating and illegal attacks in the region: last June, we condemned Israel’s illegal airstrikes against Iran that aimed to sabotage ongoing nuclear talks between the US and Iran, which killed more than 400 people and temporarily displaced millions. For decades, the US and Israel have threatened strikes against Iran, imposed sanctions against the country, and unilaterally walked away from negotiated agreements about Iran’s nuclear programme.
International law is clear. Unilateral military offensives of this scale amount to an unlawful act of aggression. This fuels wider conflict, further undermines regional stability, and erodes the global rule of law, particularly when a Head of State is targeted and killed. States must speak out urgently and clearly to condemn these acts of flagrant aggression and violations of international law. A failure or delay to act not only reinforces the current prevailing impunity, but also the global trend of accepting that chaos and violence, fueled by militarism and imperialism, is inevitable.
WILPF condemns these attacks in the strongest possible terms. States must cease hostilities immediately and take every possible measure to prevent further loss of innocent life.
For more than 110 years, WILPF has warned that militarism is not a response to insecurity—it is one of its root causes. Militarism normalises the use of force as a political tool, prioritises dominance over dialogue, and diverts vast public resources away from health, education, climate action, and human rights into weapons systems and war preparation. The events unfolding now demonstrate clearly that security cannot be achieved through overwhelming force, targeted killings, aerial bombardment, and retaliation.
We reject the attempts to justify these acts on the need for “preemptive” strikes or on the basis of long-debunked claims about the Iranian nuclear programme. As was true last June and is clear by the Trump regime’s statements, these attacks are motivated by political goals of regime change in Iran and “regional dominance” of Israel, and the United States.
As feminists who mobilise for peace and freedom in the face of militarism and state violence, we reject the framing that yet another war can deliver liberation for women or for any people. This is particularly true at the hands of militarised States who repeatedly violate international law, abuse human rights, and wage violence in the form of genocide, bombs, sanctions, and interventions at the expense of human lives. As we wrote in our recent January 2026 statement in response to the protests in Iran, “in the face of international interference and threats from global powers such as the United States and Israel, the Iranian regime has invested in militarism, mass surveillance, arrests, and shutdowns, rather than providing for the people. The only ones that have the right to determine their governance is the Iranian people; foreign intervention and militarised state control cannot deliver peace and freedom.”
These actions continue the pattern escalating acts of aggression committed with impunity—including the recent US kidnapping of Venezuelan president Maduro, Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We equally reject the framing of militarised retaliation as inevitable or necessary. History has repeatedly demonstrated that military escalation fuels cycles of revenge, normalises violence and aggression, entrenches authoritarianism, and strengthens hardline actors. Paired with skyrocketing militarism, this pattern also shrinks space for dialogue and diplomacy, and for civil society—particularly for women human rights defenders and feminist peacebuilders.
WILPF calls on all parties to:
- Immediately halt military attacks;
- Prioritise diplomatic channels and regional de-escalation mechanisms; and
- Uphold their obligations under the UN Charter, international humanitarian and human rights law.
WILPF also calls on all other States to:
- Immediately condemn all violations of international law, including acts of aggression and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law;
- Refuse to provide any logistical support for any attacks on Iran;
- Hold Israel and the United States to account for their unlawful attacks;
- Support diplomatic negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme; and
- Call on Israel, Iran, and the United States to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to join or remain in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and on Israel and the US to eliminate their nuclear weapon programmes.
WILPF stands in solidarity with all civilians affected by this violence and reiterates that “security” built on militarism is both fragile and false. True security is demilitarised and grounded in the rule of law.
