Last year, I wrote about the need to make noise for what matters. I still believe that. Silence does not challenge bias, correct unfairness, protect dignity, or open doors that were designed to stay closed. But this year, I do not think noise on its own is enough. International Women’s Day 2026 arrives with a sharper standard. It asks more than awareness. It asks what happens next. This year, the day also meets me differently on a personal level. My sister, Kaoutar Boudarraja, whom I lost last June, was deeply present for women, especially Moroccan and Maghrebi women, not only through her public voice, but through the kind of visibility she chose to create, the subjects she was willing to address, and the way she carried Moroccan representation into a wider public space. Her public work reached audiences across the Arab world, and even early in her career she approached visibility as representation rather than simple exposure. So for me, this year’s call for rights, justice, and action is not abstract. It lands closer to home. Maybe that is why I read this year’s message less as campaign language and more as a test. Not a test of what we say. A test of what changes. UN Women is framing this year around “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”, while the wider International Women’s Day campaign theme, “Give To Gain”, turns the conversation into something more practical: what are we actually willing to give so that women and girls gain something real?
