Essaouira Hosts 3rd World Women’s Forum for Peace

Essaouira – The 3rd World Women’s Forum for Peace, an international event to promote peace, justice, and solidarity through the voices of women, kicked off Thursday in Essaouira, with more than 500 participants from various countries in attendance.

Organized by the Paris-based association Les Guerrières de la Paix (Women Warriors for Peace), which has been nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, this third edition, held until November 14, brings together dedicated activists, particularly those from conflict zones, political figures, diplomats, representatives of international organizations, and civil society actors, united by a common goal: to amplify the voices of women working for peace and to strengthen their role in conflict prevention and crisis resolution processes.

This Forum, whose opening ceremony was attended notably by Advisor to His Majesty the King and Founding President of the Essaouira-Mogador Association André Azoulay, as well as eminent figures from various backgrounds, aims to provide a space for dialogue and collective reflection on the practical conditions for building a just, inclusive, and sustainable peace, while highlighting women’s essential contribution to these processes.

In a speech for the occasion, Hanna Assouline, the founding president of the association Les Guerrières de la Paix, emphasized the Forum’s mission to bring together women from diverse backgrounds, particularly from countries affected by conflict, noting that this gathering offers a rare space where women of different generations and perspectives can come together around shared values, in a spirit of dialogue and coexistence.

Referring to the powerful symbolism of Bayt Dakira, where the Holy Quran and the Torah are displayed side by side, she noted that such places demonstrate the possibility of bringing shared memory and coexistence to life in everyday life, beyond mere contemplation of the past.

Over the course of three days, this international gathering offers a rich program centered on roundtables, debates, testimonials, meetings, exhibitions, documentary screenings, and artistic performances, with the aim of fostering the exchange of experiences and identifying concrete courses of action to address contemporary challenges related to peace and security.

The World Women’s Forum for Peace seeks to be an international platform for dialogue, mobilization, and advocacy, reaffirming the need to place women at the center of initiatives aimed at preventing conflict and building lasting peace.