How conflict is experienced across three generations of Lebanese women
UN Women spoke with Lebanese women and girls to understand how the trauma, loss, and realities of conflict are shaping their lives.
Within weeks of the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of women and girls had been forced to flee their homes.
Six months on, 175,000 women and girls remain displaced and Israeli airstrikes have killed and injured 3,154 women and children. Homes, schools, and hospitals have been destroyed. People have been left living in fear.
Despite the June ceasefire agreement, attacks remain regular, and people continue to die.
UN Women spoke with Lebanese women and girls across three generations to understand how the trauma, loss, and realities of this conflict are shaping their lives.
A childhood changed
“In the past, my day would start with preparing to go to school. My friends and I would meet up, and in the afternoon, I would study and we would visit our relatives”, says 15-year-old Carla Youssef.
“Today, my day is different. We go to sleep and wake up to the sounds of shelling, explosions, and warplanes.”
Youssef is in her first year of high school. Instead of being in a classroom with her friends, she is studying online, at least when access to the internet allows.
The hardest thing for Youssef is the fear: “We do not know if we will go to sleep and wake up safe the next day – if we will ever see the ones we love again.”
When shelling began, Youssef and her family would go to the shelter at her grandfather’s house in Qlayaa, staying away from the windows. Then a nearby house was hit and a man and a young girl were killed. Her parents decided they had to flee again, this time to Beirut.
Even though Youssef and her family have recently returned home, the fear remains.
“What I miss the most is sitting in our home without being afraid.”–Carla Youssef (15)
A mother experiencing conflict through her children’s eyes
Like hundreds of thousands of others, 32-year-old Raneen El Khoury was forced to flee her home when the conflict began.
“Everything in our lives changed when the war started. I was displaced to a safe house in Qlayaa. My children left school. This increased the pressure at home. The fear, the anxiety – everything increased, everything changed. Everything became harder.”
El Khoury had lived through the 2006 war, before she became a mother, but says this experience has been different.
She has developed ways to try to protect her children from the worst of the fear and tries to remain strong in front of them. When the shelling comes close, she moves them away from the windows and gathers them together in what she believes is the safest room in the house.
Now is perhaps harder [than my experience in the 2006 war] because I have come to know what a child feels and how they get scared.
A lifetime of wars and the familiar fear of death
Seventy-two-year-old Marie Lteif Francis – a retired schoolteacher, widow and grandmother – has been through a lifetime of wars. But for her, the 1977 conflict remains the worst. Her family home was shelled, and her then 19-year-old brother was killed in front of her.
The current conflict has brought back a lot of memories – and fears.
“This daily routine and situation affected me because of the random fear, the continuous warplanes flying over, the airstrikes, and not being able to meet with relatives and loved ones”, says Lteif Francis.
“The biggest fear is death. That is what scared me most because I have experienced it.”
When the weight of the situation becomes too much, she turns to memories of another kind.
Lteif Francis’s connection to her community keeps her going. “The only thing that makes me stay and continue in my village is my love for it. Second is my love for its people, my family. All my relatives are buried in its soil.
“If I leave, I might find a land where I can stay, but I won't find my family and loved ones.”
We must remember the beautiful stories, like love, cooperation, familiarity, honesty, and loyalty. Not stories of war, hatred, and animosity.
Lebanese women and girls have the right to live and learn without fear
Youssef wants the world to see what Lebanese children like her have been through – that they have rights, hopes, and dreams, like anyone else.
“I want them to see us as children who have the right to live and learn without fear.” She hopes to grow up like other children in Lebanon, able to go to school, travel safely, and pursue her dreams. “My hope is for us to live in peace and achieve our dreams.”
Lteif Francis shares Youssef’s wish: “My hope for my children, grandchildren, and my village is lasting peace.”
UN Women in Lebanon
UN Women is on the ground in Lebanon supporting women, girls, and their communities. Since March 2026, we have reached more than 130,000 people affected by the crisis, providing them with essential services and basic necessities.
UN Women has supported 16 women-led and women’s rights organizations to deliver gender-responsive protection services; mobilized a network of over 500 women peacebuilders to mitigate rising social tensions and support conflict-sensitive humanitarian action; and scaled up community kitchens across eight locations, providing displaced women with income opportunities while supporting vulnerable households.
We work with women leaders to help communities navigate the crisis, connect people to assistance, identify urgent needs, and ensure that women are represented in local response and recovery efforts.
UN Women calls for the ceasefire to be fully upheld and transitioned to comprehensive peace, in line with international humanitarian law and international law. We call for women, peace, and security commitments – ensuring women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in peacebuilding and in recovery efforts.
