On this International Women’s Day, the 8th of March 2026, Faith to Action Network — rooted in the Global South and led by the voices, wisdom, and courage of the Global South — joins communities of faith and conscience across the world in honouring the resilience, leadership, and transformative power of women everywhere.
Women are the heartbeat of families, communities, and nations. Yet across the globe, and with particular force in the regions we call home in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific, women continue to face discrimination, gender-based violence, exclusion from decision-making, and the denial of rights that are theirs by birth and by right. This must change — and faith communities have both the calling and the capacity to be decisive agents of that change. We acknowledge the significant investment by diverse faith actors – including our members and partners – in promoting women’s rights and gender justice.
Faith to Action Network believes, without reservation, that women’s rights are not in tension with faith — they are an expression of it. Denying a woman her voice, her safety, her education, or her agency is not a religious imperative; it is a failure of the deepest values our traditions teach. We call upon various stakeholders to join hands with faith actors to collaborate in the quest to ensure that women and girls lead full and rewarding lives. In particular, we recognise the right of adolescent girls and young women to access life-saving knowledge relating to age-appropriate sexuality education.
Celebration without accountability is incomplete. Honouring women on this day demands that we name, clearly and without flinching, the work that still lies ahead. Faith to Action Network calls on faith communities, leaders, governments, and all people of conscience to:
- End gender-based violence — including domestic violence, sexual violence, and harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage — recognising these not as cultural inevitabilities but as violations of both human rights and sacred dignity.
- Ensure women’s full participation in religious leadership and governance, breaking down the theological and institutional barriers that silence women’s voices in the very spaces that shape moral culture.
- Champion girls’ education as a non-negotiable priority, knowing that an educated girl transforms not only her own life, but her family, her community, and her nation.
- Protect and promote sexual and reproductive health and rights, affirming women’s right to access comprehensive health care without stigma, coercion, or exclusion.
- Partner and give to support and expand opportunities and justice for women. We affirm that ‘giving is not a subtraction, it’s intentional multiplication and when women thrive, we all rise’.
- Address economic inequality by advocating for equal pay, women’s land and property rights, access to credit, and protection against labour exploitation — all of which are issues of justice rooted in our deepest shared values.
- Centre the voices of women from the Global South in national and international policy spaces, rejecting frameworks that speak about women in the Global South without, or worse, in place of, their own leadership and agency.
- Engage men and boys as active allies and champions of gender justice, transforming notions of masculinity to be rooted in respect, empathy, and equity.
- Reinterpret and reclaim sacred texts through gender-just lenses, working with scholars, theologians, and communities to challenge interpretations that have been weaponised to justify women’s oppression.
As Faith to Action Network, we stand, with the religious leaders, women theologians, interfaith advocates, and community change-makers across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and beyond who are doing the holy, hard, and hopeful work of building a world where every woman can live fully and freely.
