HE[R]EAL – Her Reality: Women, War and What Comes After

June 12, 2026
Tilted photo collage of multiple people in various settings on a dark green background.

Who are women in conflict? Local leaders in civil society, in government and private sector.  Women combatants. Wives and girlfriends of armed groups. Mothers, sisters, daughters who tend to bear the brunt of impact of conflict. Survivors of violence, displacement and deprivation. Why do they become part of war? And what happens to them when it ends?

These questions are too often overlooked in stories of conflict and peace. Yet in reality, women are present across every layer of armed conflict. They are not outside it. They are caught up in it.

Still, in transitions from war to peace, their experiences remain underrepresented, and their needs often unmet.

A world shaped by conflict and fragility

Today’s crises are intensifying and overlapping.

  • 61 state-based conflicts across 36 countries in 2025 — the highest since WWII
  • At least 233,000 people killed in conflict in 2024, a 30% increase in one year
  • 117.2 million people forcibly displaced globally, with women and girls making up half
  • Nearly one in six women and girls living within 50km of a deadly conflict event
  • 87% increase in conflict-related sexual violence since 2022

Rethinking Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration

Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) is the technical term that describes the process helping armed groups move to civilian life and societies move from war to peace. But DDR is not only technical. It is deeply human. And for women, it is often incomplete.

Within DDR reintegration is a long, fragile process shaped by economic, social and psychological realities, and by the societies people return to. Reintegration is crucial in determining whether peace holds.

Beyond the formal process

Women’s journeys begin long before disarmament and continue long after formal reintegration ends. They are shaped by survival, coercion, necessity, and by gender norms that persist long after conflict.

Research shows women have been present in the majority of armed groups globally, including in leadership roles. Yet their experiences remain too often invisible in peacebuilding systems.

Photograph of a squad in camouflage uniforms standing with rifles in a dry open field.
Ukraine

It’s a Way of Life

Women now make up about 7 percent of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, a 30 percent increase since the war began. Many joined to defend their country and families—and, as The New York Times’ Nicole Tung writes, for many, “it’s a way of life,” with some planning to remain in service even after the war. Understanding these motivations is key to building lasting peace and security. Leya, 44, first volunteered as a body collector before joining the elite Third Brigade as a combat medic, here portrayed during assault training.

Photo: Nicole Tung

Person in purple jacket and orange shirt outdoors; mountains in background, face blurred.
Colombia

Coincidencia

“Where I lived before was really out in the countryside. I met a guy. A guerilla member. And we started a romantic relationship. And that’s why I joined the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia], basically […]. And the entire 19 years that I spent in the FARC I spent with him”, says Gissela Leguizamo.

Photo: Rede Nacional de Mujeres

Woman wearing floral headscarf and colorful skirt kneels beside a clay cooking pit outside mud wall.
Cameroon

Captivity

Yaana Bana was kidnapped by Boko Haram at just nine. She spent four years in captivity and was forcibly married three times. “I was just a child,” Yaana recalls. “I didn’t understand what was happening.” After a daring escape with the help of a local woman, she found refuge at Meri Center. Now married to an ex-combatant and mother of two, she says, “It’s not much, but it’s ours. It’s peace.”

Photo: UNDP Cameroon

Person in a blue-purple hijab with a blurred face, facing left against a gray wall.
Iraq

Survivors’ Stories from Al-Qahtaniya

For many, armed conflict brings flight, loss, and displacement. Shireen, who lost her son to the conflict and spent years in displacement camps, embodies both the pain and resilience of survival. In her town of Al-Qahtaniya, a Yazidi town in northern Iraq, people continue to rebuild amid the aftermath of violence. It is often those communities that may one day be asked to reintegrate those returning from war.

Photo: UNDP Iraq/Mahdi Al-Saadawi

Photograph of a person in a blue patterned veil standing in the doorway of a thatched clay hut.
Cameroon

Liberation

Amina Omate shares her story of escape and courage: “I told him, I can’t stand living here anymore. Because you’re [her husband] injured, it’s best we go home.[…] There was a gentleman that used to trade there. He used to sell some goods to us. So, he knows the road. I asked him to help us get out of the bush. I offered him money in return. […] As soon as they heard we’d escaped they followed us.” Amina is now at the Meri Centre — a DDR transit facility in Cameroon’s Far North where she arrived after escaping Boko Haram.

Photo: UNDP Cameroon

Two people sit at a wooden desk in a room, in front of a banner about community violence reduction.
Central African Republic

So, The Journey Begins

A woman registers a participant in the Community Violence Reduction (CVR) project in Bambari, Central African Republic, underscoring the importance of women in programming — not only as beneficiaries, but also as implementers and decision-makers. CVR helps communities turn the page from conflict to peace. Where full DDR programmes are not yet possible,¬CVR acts as both a bridge and a catalyst — reducing violence, preventing recruitment, and fostering safer, more hopeful futures.

Photo: IOM CAR/Giacomo Gabbrielli

UN peacekeeper woman in uniform and mask reads papers; rifles line a sandy wall, nearby a camo-clad soldier.
Mali

UN Peacekeepers: Securing the Path Beyond Conflict

A female UN peacekeeper supports the DDR process in Timbuktu by documenting and verifying weapons handed over by combatants. Her role as a Mission Support Officer is essential to ensuring accuracy, transparency, and accountability in weapons registration and storage procedures. The active and technical contributions of women in field operations, particularly in weapons and ammunition management, where their presence helps build trust, promote compliance, and reinforce gender-responsive approaches to DDR.

Photo: MINUSMA

Two men with rifles on a table outdoors near tents; one wears a blue head covering.
Mali

Weapons Laid to Rest

As part of the preparations for the launch of the DDR process in Mali, a readiness exercise was held in April 2017 at the military engineering camp in Bamako. The aim was to test procedures, build capacity, and ensure all actors were equipped to begin the pilot DDR phase at the Fafa cantonment site. A female staff member of the National DDR Commission (NDDRC) participates in this preparatory phase, showing women also play a role as operational actors in disarmament efforts.

Photo: MINUSMA

Photo: people walk through a dry desert toward a thatched shelter under a bright blue sky.
Mozambique

A Journey Home

Family members of former combatants at the assembly area where demobilization activities took place in Vunduzi, Sofala Province - a reminder that every step toward peace is also a family’s new beginning. Vunduzi was the last of 16 Renamo military bases to close in June 2023, following the demobilization of 5,221 fo mer combatants over a three-year period.

Photo: Office of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Mozambique

Photograph of a woman with a colorful headscarf and beige shawl covering her lower face in a crowd.
Nepal

In the Shadows

A discharged combatant with his wife during the DDR briefing shows that DDR is not only about the combatants themselves, but also about the women whose participation and empowerment shape lasting peace. After Nepal’s 2006 peace agreement, verified Maoist combatants were discharged—but many women remained invisible due to prevailing gender stereotypes and the stigma associated with being linked to violence.

Photo: UNDP Nepal/Anctil Avoin and Zulay Carolina Rueda,¬Post-Armed Struggle¬Feminist Militancy of the Farianas

Photograph of a female teacher lecturing in a classroom with wooden benches and students wearing colorful hijabs.
Somalia

Learning for a New Beginning

At IOM’s project site in Baidoa, women and youth formerly associated with Al-Shabaab, as well as those vulnerable to recruitment, participate in livelihoods training. The 6-month programme — implemented in partnership with the Tubsan National Centre for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) and supported by the Government of Japan — includes basic literacy and numeracy training, vocational and entrepreneurship training, and case management support.

Photo: IOM Somalia/Moustapha Ragueh

Reintegration is lived, not linear

Returning to civilian life is rarely straightforward as stigma can persist, identity can be questioned and opportunities can shrink.

Women’s participation in armed groups can transform identity, often requiring them to adopt roles and behaviours traditionally associated with men and leaving them feeling disconnected from their sense of womanhood. A gradual return to self-expression - such as being able to dress and act in ways that feel authentic again - is neither simple nor complete. 

Reintegration into civilian life can introduce new forms of stigma and hardship, with former combatants facing judgment from their communities and even difficult questions from their own families. 

However, also some advances that women achieve during conflict or transitional periods are frequently reversed once peace is restored, underscoring the fragility of such gains.

Reintegration is therefore not only about livelihoods or security. It is about belonging, recognition and social acceptance.

Women shaping recovery

Peace, in practice, is often rebuilt through everyday acts of recovery. Women rebuild livelihoods, support families, lead communities and enter political life and challenge systems from within.

Community reintegration initiatives also show how shared production and decision-making can rebuild trust, shift gender norms and support reconciliation.

Photo of a group around a table as a seated man signs a document while others watch.
Colombia

Stitching Peace in Itagüí

Women participate in the Productive Sewing Environment, an initiative developed under the Early Reintegration Model in Productive Environments, led by the Colombia Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN) with IOM support. The strength of the collective shines through as women come together to share learning that goes beyond work itself.

Photo: IOM Colombia/Juliana Peña

Group of people sewing and sorting fabric in a small, cozy workshop with hanging shirts under a red canopy.
Philippines

Entrepreneurship

In the Philippines, the Matiakap Women’s Marketing Cooperative was founded about a decade ago, specialising in the Muslim traditional attire market. With support from partners such as UNDP Philippines, the women’s financial discipline, business acumen and hard work enabled them to sustain and expand their business. They stand as an inspiring example of a thriving women’s cooperative fostering economic empowerment.

Photo: UNDP Philippines

Two women in a clothing market stall; foreground woman in a yellow patterned dress, faces blurred.
Democratic Republic of Congo

Empowered to Earn

Once caught in conflict, a woman in the DRC now stitches new beginnings — transforming pain into purpose and livelihoods that sustain both families and hope. Through sewing cooperatives and small enterprises, they rebuild confidence, independence, and community bonds frayed by years of war. Their work is a testament to women’s leadership in shaping peace — one thread, one business, and one act of courage at a time.

Photo: UNDP Democratic Republic of Congo

Caregiver in pink shirt and green vest helps children at a table in a classroom.
Iraq

Women Shaping Tomorrow

In Iraq, a social worker from the Iraqi Institution for Development helps children heal through learning and play. Women are leading community-based reintegration efforts that foster trust, inclusion, and healing. Through their initiatives, they create safe spaces where recovery and resilience take root — breaking cycles of generational trauma and reducing the risk of violent extremism. Supported by GCERF, these women stand at the forefront of rebuilding social cohesion and hope.

Photo: GCERF/Ashor Iraqi Foundation for Relief and Development

Photograph of an elderly person in a wheelchair on a sidewalk, wearing red pants and smiling.
Ethiopia

Unbroken

Armed conflict leaves visible and invisible wounds. In 2024, UNDP partnered with the Ethiopian National Rehabilitation Commission to demobilize and reintegrate combatants in Tigray, including 34,000 with disabilities. At the Meles Rehabilitation Centre, a woman is among many other ex-combatants with disabili-
ties, who receive medical and psychosocial care, including prosthetic services. “There isn’t enough medical treatment when we go back to the community. If I get a modern prosthetic leg I can move as freely as I want […]. I can help my community and my children,” says Meretsu Chekole.

Photo: UNDP Ethiopia

Indoor group of women seated; central figure in shawl, hands clasped, face obscured by a black box.
Sudan

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

Conflict amplifies the risks of gender-based violence — from rape and abduction to forced marriage and humiliation used as tactics of war. Yet across Sudan, women continue to rise, speak, and lead. Captured during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) — an annual global campaign that raises awareness to end gender-based violence — this image reminds us that confronting conflict-related GBV demands courage, accountability, and solidarity. Women are not only survivors, but drivers of lasting change.

Photo: Samara Andrade

Person wearing a blue hijab kneels in a garden bed beside young seedlings.
Philippines

Pakikipagkapwa

In the Philippines, UNDP supported the Calagana Women’s Marketing Cooperative, where women farmers are gaining new skills and confidence to grow their livelihoods. A member of the personnel recounts, “Their vegetable gardens are beautiful — rows of aubergines and chillies. Yet the members of the cooperative went even further, teaching others in the community how to farm.” Women ex-combatants sowed more than seeds — they shared their skills across their community.

Photo: UNDP Philippines

Performer on stage with a shiny metal bucket around their waist, arms raised.
Colombia

Café Muz

Malán spent a decade with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (FARC-EP), where she rose to a militia leadership role. After the 2016 Peace Agreement, she laid down arms and founded the women’s coffee association¬ Café Mujeres Mixtas Unidas por la Paz (Café Muz). Today, the group empowers ex-combatants and families through coffee production.

Photo: UNDP Colombia

Photo of two people posing on a stairwell with green railings and blue walls.
Ukraine

Let’s Run, Mom

Life did not stop for Olha Benda after her amputation — it took a new direction. As veteran and mother, she returned to sports and helped establish Ukraine’s first women’s amputee football team. Alongside raising her children, she dedicates herself to rehabilitation and support initiatives for both veterans and civilians with amputations. The Power to Continue – a UNDP Ukraine and Reporters collaboration – shares stories of veterans and civilians who turned pain into purpose, inspiring others through social and business innovation.

Photo: UNDP Ukraine/Vyacheslav Ratynskyi, Reporters

Group of people playing volleyball on a dusty outdoor field; ball mid-air above a jumping player.
Cameroon

Social Cohesion

A powerful scene captures sport as a universal language: young women ex-associates from the local DDR center and girls from the host community play volleyball together. More than a game, it marks a step toward reconciliation and reintegration that was longer under preparation. Under the Gender and Youth Promoting Initiative, this activity creates space for young women from different backgrounds to meet, connect, and build lasting friendships – in the long run reducing the stigmatization of those returning to communities.

Photo: OIM, ONUFEMMES, ALVF, LOYOCh

HE[R]EAL – Her Reality

HE[R]EAL is a global multimedia exhibition co-created by UNDP and the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA). It brings together photography and testimony from conflict-affected contexts including Ethiopia, Colombia, the Philippines and Ukraine.

It challenges dominant narratives of war-to-peace transitions, where too often, women are seen only as victims or left out of the story entirely.

HE[R]EAL offers another perspective: women as survivors, former combatants, family members of armed actors, caregivers, leaders and agents of change.

Why it matters now

This exhibition marks:

  • 25 years since UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security
  • 20 years of global DDR coordination frameworks

But it also comes at a more urgent moment. The world is facing rising conflict, widening displacement, climate stress and shrinking humanitarian space. The UN estimates that 239 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2026, while only a fraction will receive it.

At the same time, conflict, inequality and fragility are becoming the defining drivers of poverty. In this context, visibility matters because women’s experiences are not peripheral to peace. They are central to whether peace lasts.

An invitation

HE[R]EAL is an invitation to see peace differently through women’s realities. Because reintegration is not the end of conflict. It is the beginning of life after war.