YWILPF Global Call: The Power of Sports to Advance Feminist Peace 

Host: Young WILPF Network

Open to: Public

When? Thursday 28 August at 9:00 AM New York | 1: 00 PM Dakar | 3:00 PM Geneva | 11:00 PM Melbourne (check your time zone).

About: The Young WILPF Network invites you to join them for a Global Call to explore the power of sports and everyday practices to advance feminist peace. Feminist peace is not only built and sustained through treaties and policies. It’s built through our everyday practices- from hiking with friends to joining a local running club. While sports can sometimes be a vehicle for toxic and competitive masculinities, they are also a powerful expression of teamwork, collaboration, equity, and community-building. As an everyday practice and a soft diplomacy tool, sports offers unique avenues to advance gender equality and peace at the grassroots level. For instance, women and girls from Africa to Latin America are increasingly joining cycling groups and football teams while learning about their bodies, including relevant information about their sexual and reproductive rights (IOC 2025).  

In conversation with Sarah Murray, Executive Director of the organisation ‘Free to Run’ and Nicole Matuska, U.S Director of the feminist fund ‘Women Win’, we will explore how sports contribute to gender equality and foster peace and the role of young people in this work. Free to Run, a non-profit organisation founded in Afghanistan in 2014, uses running and rights-based programmes to support the leadership, agency, and health of girls and young women. Likewise, Women Win works with girls and young women via sports-based leadership programmes, economic resilience partnerships, and innovative strategic collaboration to build a more equitable future.  

How to participate: Register now to receive the Zoom link!