International Women’s Day 2026 | Living as Resistance: If They Can Be Brave, So Can We

It is an honour to once again share my thoughts for International Women’s Day. As with the last two times I’ve sat down to write this, one question lingers:

What do I really have to add? What can I say that can help make sense of all that's happening around us?

Let me begin here: it is a privilege to have my voice heard. While I hope for the day when this is a basic right rather than a product of geographical luck, I remain deeply grateful nonetheless.

Today, a little more than on other days, I am thinking about the girls and women in Afghanistan whose dreams have been robbed from them. I am thinking about the primary school girls in Iran who died due to US military attacks.

I am thinking about the Epstein files and the horrors children were subjected to. I am thinking about women across the world whose bodies have been politicised, whose minds and spirits the world has tried to control and crush time and time again.

Despite all this, I am thinking about how women have refused to bend or succumb to what feels like a never-ending attempt to force us into submission. I am in awe of the enduring spirits of our mothers and grandmothers, of the strength I see among my peers, and of the generations of girls to come.

I will not lie — lately, things have been looking bleak. It has been difficult to hold onto hope; to believe in change for the better has made me feel delusional and naive, as though I have failed to grasp the injustice that permeates this world.

I have stayed up watching videos and reading articles about Sudan, Gaza, the US — just to name a few. It is especially heartbreaking to see how war, genocide, and fascism, among other horrors, disproportionately harm women and children.

I have often found myself reduced to tears at 2am, staring at my ceiling, feeling overwhelmed and paralysed. Then I wake the next day and get swept away by life, occupied by the privilege of education and freedom I get to enjoy — privileges that women across the globe have been denied.

It is disorienting to live in a world that feels as though it is breaking down, while I have been lucky enough to find my own reality largely unchanged, safe and steady.

Being caught in this cycle, I understand how the causes we champion can feel insurmountable. It is difficult to imagine a future where we allow one another to love freely, to be who we want to be, and to empower and embrace each other.

I do not claim to have a solution to any of this. I do not claim to have figured out how to process feelings of hopelessness or how to turn them into progress.

I want to suggest, perhaps, that hope can be more than a futile daydream.

People around the world are staring death and cruelty in the face. If they can remain brave, so can we. The battles they have been forced to fight are ones we can choose to stand alongside.

This IWD, I urge you to reflect on how far we have come and how much has already been done so that women may live dignified, liberated lives. Let us commit to one radical act a day. It can be as simple as loving your body for what it is, or choosing to speak up despite the fear that grips us.

Every effort carries meaning and influence — let us use it.

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A couple of days ago, I asked a kid I tutor if she could draw me. When she returned with her portrait, she had given me a huge sword. I’m not sure what that meant or where she got the impression that I can wield one, but I’ll take it as a compliment.

Her drawing felt like a reminder of the impact I have on the girls who come after me — and of the impact all of you have on the women in your lives. Let us not take that for granted.

It has been an honour to learn from and lean on the women in my life. I hope every one of you has been lucky enough to be inspired by a woman, and that you will be brave enough to live your truth. In a world constantly trying to oppress, choosing authenticity is a daring act of resistance.

Here’s to building a world where a warm embrace, more than a huge sword, becomes our symbol of courage and strength.

Happy International Women’s Day.