While collective violence affects all those who live through it, there are clear examples present in all of the stories of the very distinct impacts on girls. Indeed in many of these contexts, just to be a girl is deemed as a threat. Right from their first interaction with public space – from whether they can attend school to how they are recognised and seen in public life – girls’ experiences are shaped by restrictions and controls on self expression, on movement, and on their abilities to contribute to social life outside of the home.

Girls’ stories during war and conflict are tragic and harrowing, highlighting the constant fear and threat to their lives and their bodies, death of loved ones, trauma and the loss of safety and childhood. Everywhere we hear stories of war, we hear of the way that rape – as well as guns – is used as a weapon to silence and terrorise and destroy and maim. Girls are displaced from their home – driven by conflict, repressive regimes, climate crisis, economic injustice, and structural and interpersonal violence. Some are born in a displaced setting and for some a constant state of movement is a part of the fabric of their life, with a palpable sense of rootlessness and a complex relationship with “home”. Despite all that they face, girls are so often at the forefront of caring for family and community through times of collective violence. For these girls, resistance is both deeply human – tightly linked to their survival – and explicitly political.