International Women’s Day: “Striving for Peace, Preparing for War” [Virtual]
The webinar is scheduled for March 8th at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET.
REGISTER HERE
Around the globe, women have spent decades protesting, advocating, and leading local and global nuclear disarmament movements and peace initiatives in countless ways.
The current geopolitical context and the growing number of nuclear-related and nuclear-adjacent conflicts feel both unprecedented and all too familiar. The calamitous situation in the Gaza Strip, the risk of a wider war in the Middle East, the threat of a nuclearized Iran, and the global rise of authoritarianism are forcing the need for a widespread reckoning and reorientation of domestic and foreign policies. Yet our leaders consistently fail to provide genuine security or productive diplomacy, using the same old compass that has only one direction – with the needle invariably pointing towards war.
This International Women’s Day, Equity Rises again turns our full attention towards women who are challenging the prevailing views on the necessity of threats, force, and war to resolve conflicts:
- Sara Haghdoosti, Executive Director of Win Without War and Win Without War Education Fund
- Dr. Nancy Okail, President and CEO of the Center for International Policy
- Dr. Emma Belcher, President of Ploughshares Fund
Please join us for what is sure to be an inspiring and engaging conversation. And please share this invitation with a friend.
For questions, please reach out to events@ploughshares.org.
Meet the Speakers
Sara Haghdoosti is the Executive Director of Win Without War and Win Without War Education Fund. Sara has spent more than a decade advocating for diplomatic solutions over failed military responses to crises involving nuclear non-proliferation, climate change, women’s rights, and democracy. She previously worked at the Mozilla Foundation, Change.org, and GetUp Australia. Sara brings a unique voice to foreign policy discourse as a Muslim woman who navigates the halls of power in Washington, works with grassroots organizations around the country, and has personally experienced the effects of harmful foreign policy. Her debut novel is Sunburnt Veils, the story of a young Muslim woman activist in Australia.
Dr. Nancy Okail is President and CEO of the Center for International Policy. She is a leading scholar, policy analyst, and advocate with more than 20 years of experience working on issues of human rights, democracy, and security in the Middle East and North Africa region. Previously, Dr. Okail served as Executive Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). In 2020, she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. As Director of Freedom House’s Egypt program, she was one of 43 nongovernmental organization workers sentenced to prison for allegedly using foreign funds to foment unrest in Egypt in 2012. In December 2018, a court ruling exonerated her. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex in the UK.
Dr. Emma Belcher is the President of Ploughshares Fund. Before joining Ploughshares Fund, Dr. Belcher worked at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for nearly a decade; was a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; and worked at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC as a public affairs officer as well as an advisor to the Australian Prime Minister and Cabinet on national security and international affairs. She holds degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (PhD and MALD) and the University of Melbourne (BA [Honors]).