WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, Independent Women recognizes International Women’s Day, highlighting American leadership as essential in the protection of women and girls around the world.
Meaghan Mobbs, Director of Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security, said: “This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the restoration of common sense—the ability to define what a woman is and to protect the spaces, rights, and dignity of women and girls. But while we mark this victory, we cannot ignore the harsh reality that the world is becoming increasingly dangerous for women. From Afghanistan to Iran, too many societies treat women as second-class citizens. We must have the courage to call this out decisively. A nation that fails to recognize and protect women is not a free one, and we stand firm in our commitment to ensuring that women everywhere are safe, valued, and respected.”
Andi Bottner, Vice President of External Relations at Independent Women and former Director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Women’s Issues, said: “As my former boss Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, ‘Societies that treat women badly are dangerous societies.’ Today, I am grateful that I can openly and safely, celebrate this special day in a society that values the contributions of women, lifts up their example and works toward future progress on their behalf.”
Qanta Ahmed, Senior Fellow with Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security, said: “This year International Women’s Day turns 50. As leaders at the Independent Women’s Forum and empowered Americans, we are deeply committed to fighting for advances for women and girls in America and around the world. As an American Muslim woman, it has been my lifetime privilege to defend women and girls from the ravages of both Islamist antisemitism and radical Islam around the world. We commit to fighting extremism which victimizes the women and girls lost, raped, violated and bereaved by Hamas perpetrated October 7, the Yazidi and Kurdish women survivors of ISIS, the women and girls still struggling under the oppression of the Taliban in Afghanistan and those women and girls under the oppression of Islamist Iran who daily die in their struggles for freedom. President Trump leads us in this struggle so women and girls everywhere are liberated of extremist misogyny, marginalization and dehumanization. God Bless America and God Bless all women and girls everywhere.”
Ellie Cohanim, Senior Fellow with Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security, said: “On this International Women’s Day, I thank US President Donald Trump for his Proclamation marking March 2025 as ‘Women’s History Month” on the heels of his historic steps to protect women and girls from gender extremism in the US. Further, 17 months after the Oct 7 massacre, I remind the world of the sexual atrocities which Hamas committed on that horrible day and since, and justice is still demanded for these sexual crimes targeting girls and women. I also stand with my sisters in Iran, who live daily under a gender apartheid regime.”
In an op-ed penned for the Washington Examiner, Mobbs and Bottner write, in part:
“If America truly believes in women’s rights, we must be willing to defend them. That means ensuring that those who use sexual violence as a weapon of war—and entities like the UN that have participated in such abuses—face real consequences. It means rejecting the complacency of a global order that has allowed women’s suffering to continue for far too long.”
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