Our Story
Forward Global Women was founded in 2011 as a way to foster leadership development and peace-building across countries. Learn more about our story below!

Since 2011 Forward Global Women has put on in-person convenings all over the world for young women leaders from the MENA region. After two years hiatus as a result of the COVID pandemic, FGW is pleased to announce we just hosted our first convening in Athens, Greece since the pandemic in September. The topic was MENA Women: Addressing Violence and Post-COVID Challenges.
November 21 2021
Watch Forward Global Women's latest webinar, about violence against women in online spaces throughout the MENA region. Featuring two young women from Morocco, Fatimazahrae Moutia and Zineb Rabouj, Both women have a passion and experience in human rights, women's rights, and academia in Morocco. Click below to watch the recording.
August 29 2021
Forward Global Women presents a webinar from August 29, 2021 to celebrate its ten-year anniversary, and remembering one of its founders, Jordanian feminist and scholar, Professor Rula Quawas. Click below to watch the webinar recording.
June 27 2021
Watch FGW's Webinar from the Young Women Leaders Series, Young Women Of Morocco. Featuring Nezha Sadiq and Dounia Benslimane. Watch to hear these young Moroccan leaders shares their own path to leadership, accomplishments, and challenges, knowing the challenges that Moroccan and North African women face in furthering women's rights in the region.
May 23 2021
Watch FGW's Webinar from the Young Women Leaders Series, Young Brave Women Of Libya. Hala Bugaighis. Hala shares her own path to leadership, her accomplishments, and her challenges knowing the danger of speaking up against women's rights in Libya.
May 9 2021
Watch FGW's Webinar from the Young Women Leaders Series, where Samia Smadi and Farah Bdour share their own paths to leadership, their accomplishments, and what it's like to be a young Jordanian leader in a peacebuilding world.
February 21 2021
Watch FGW's Webinar from the Young Women Leaders Series, Young Women Leaders of Palestine. Where Nivine Sandouka and Majd Mashharawi share their own paths to leadership, their accomplishments, and what it's like to be a young Palestinian leader, in a peace building world.
Forward Global Women (FGW) was borne from the desire to promote the peaceful resolution of conflict in the Middle East and to advocate for the full and equal participation of women in the peacemaking process.
Through an annual convening and other events, FGW brings together women leaders – elected officials, academicians and activists – from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the United States to build relationships, grow skills and facilitate new understandings of social and political issues in their respective countries, creating a network of women peacemakers.
The importance of including women in the peace process was recognized by the United Nations (UN) in 2000 with the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which affirmed that peace and security efforts are more sustainable when women are equal partners in the prevention of conflict and in the forging of a lasting peace. A study by UN Women in 2015 (Read Here) found that women’s participation in peace processes not only improves the likelihood that an agreement will be reached but also results in a more durable and stable peace. With the inclusion of women, the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years is increased by 20 percent and the probability of lasting 15 years is increased by 35 percent.
Forward Global Women was founded in 2011 as a way to foster leadership development and peace-building across countries. Learn more about our story below!
Want to help further Forward Global Women’s work? Click here to learn more ways on how to help us grow.
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