By Shérazade Zaiter Author | Jurist | Lecturer | Ambassador for the European Climate Pact, University of Limoges
Every minute, sixty people flee their homes, driven out by extreme weather events worsened by climate change. And yet, this mass exodus remains largely ignored—unseen by the public eye and absent from major international resolutions… A phenomenon that Shérazade Zaiter unveils in Le Grand Déplacement : l’exode climatique, to be released on June 12 by Éditions Erick Bonnier.
Discover below the chapter of the book devoted to the fate that far too many women endure during these migrations.
Is the Earth deliberately cruel to women during disasters?
Is the Earth so cruel that it deliberately targets women during catastrophes, turning them into more frequent victims than men? Of course not. It would be absurd to believe that being a woman intrinsically reduces one’s chances of survival.
Yet the inequality is relentless. Natural disasters kill more women than men on average. That’s the result of a study conducted by environmental and quantitative social science researchers Eric Neumayer and Thomas Plümper. They analyzed over 200 disasters in 141 countries between 1981 and 2002. And when women don’t die in greater numbers, they tend to die younger.
Women die more in natural disasters
During the Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995, female mortality was 50% higher than that of men. Many elderly women lived alone in underprivileged residential areas, particularly affected by the tremors.
In poorer Bangladesh, climate-related events have been just as deadly. In 1991, a cyclone followed by flooding claimed the lives of 140,000 people, 90% of whom were women and young girls. In 2010, UNICEF reported that in Pakistan, floods affected 18 million people, 70% of whom were women and children.
In March 2005, Oxfam International published a study revealing that during the December 26, 2004 tsunami, women paid a disproportionate price. Triggered by an earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, it devastated thousands of kilometers of coastline in mere hours, hitting 12 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Africa. Over 220,000 people perished, and 1.6 million were displaced. Indonesia’s Aceh province, the epicenter of the tragedy, was the hardest hit, with 132,000 dead and 37,000 missing. In some villages, nearly two-thirds of the victims were women and children. In Kuala Cangkoy, for instance, 80% of the deaths were women.
Similar stories repeat elsewhere: in Cuddalore, India, nearly three times more women than men lost their lives. In Sri Lanka, partial data also shows a stark imbalance in survival rates.
Why such disparity? The reasons vary, but common factors emerge: women often stay behind to find their children or help relatives, while men are more likely to know how to swim or climb trees.
In Aceh, the tsunami struck on a Sunday morning, when many women were at home while men were away from the coast. In India, women were waiting onshore for the fishermen to return. In Sri Lanka, in the Batticaloa district, the tsunami struck while women were bathing in the sea. Oxfam emphasizes that disasters expose and magnify pre-existing social inequalities. Where fragile social structures exist, women are on the front lines, often paying the highest price.
The horrors of migration
In November 2024, a damning report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Mixed Migration Centre revealed the horror of violence suffered by female migrants traveling the Central Mediterranean route: 90% of migrant women are victims of rape, often repeatedly, in a system of barbarity where the female body becomes currency, a site of systemic suffering. Criminal gangs and smugglers abuse their power by demanding “sexual favors” in exchange for passage, shelter, or even a glass of water.
Some women are kidnapped, forcibly married to their rapists, and forced to bear their children. The goal? To exploit their pregnancies to become eligible for disembarkation in Europe, manipulating perceptions of vulnerability to gain humanitarian rights. One migrant cited in the report decided to disguise herself as a man to avoid violence. But her ruse was uncovered by a smuggler during a journey in an overloaded pickup truck. Discovered, harassed, and then raped in an isolated warehouse, she survived—but at the cost of irreparable trauma.
The locations of these horrors are well known: Libya, the Sahara Desert, Niger, Sudan, and Mali. There, migrant women, already weakened by inhumane travel conditions, are chained, beaten, electrocuted. Some are held in filthy camps where they are regularly raped by smuggler groups. Others, after enduring atrocious torture, must buy their freedom with exorbitant sums that their families—contacted by the captors—struggle to raise. Few manage to escape. The lifeless bodies found in the desert or Mediterranean bear witness to these desperate attempts.
Whether fleeing war, persecution, hunger, or the effects of climate change, women see their journey turn into an odyssey of pain and terror.
Voices for peace
In Oslo, December 10, 2018, Dr. Denis Mukwege delivered a painfully memorable speech upon receiving his Nobel Peace Prize.
“ON THE TRAGIC NIGHT OF OCTOBER 6, 1996, REBELS ATTACKED OUR HOSPITAL IN LEMERA, IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC). OVER THIRTY PEOPLE KILLED. PATIENTS SHOT DEAD IN THEIR BEDS AT POINT-BLANK RANGE. STAFF WHO COULDN’T ESCAPE KILLED IN COLD BLOOD. I COULDN’T IMAGINE THIS WAS JUST THE BEGINNING. FORCED TO LEAVE LEMERA, IN 1999 WE CREATED PANZI HOSPITAL IN BUKAVU, WHERE I STILL WORK TODAY AS AN OBSTETRICIAN-GYNECOLOGIST. THE FIRST PATIENT ADMITTED WAS A RAPE VICTIM WHO HAD BEEN SHOT IN HER GENITALS. THE MACABRE VIOLENCE KNEW NO LIMIT. AND THIS VIOLENCE, UNFORTUNATELY, NEVER STOPPED.”
This obstetrician-gynecologist, nicknamed “the man who repairs women,” described with painful clarity the atrocities suffered by sexual violence survivors. He spoke of Sarah, a woman whose village had been destroyed, who survived gang rapes, tied naked to a tree in the forest. Despite unimaginable injuries, Sarah found her strength and now helps other survivors rebuild their lives.
These acts of violence thrive in a world where perpetrators enjoy impunity. Where leaders tolerate—or even use—sexual violence as a weapon of war. And where the indifference of the powerful fuels these atrocities. “Justice is not negotiable,” he declared, condemning systems that, through inaction or complicity, allow these crimes to continue. “If a woman like Sarah doesn’t give up, who are we to do so?” he asked. The fight against gender inequality, sexual violence, and impunity is a collective responsibility. For Sarah and so many others.
Fighting for women’s dignity
The fight for women’s dignity, carried by figures like Dr. Denis Mukwege, finds deep resonance in the worsening environmental crisis. In sub-Saharan Africa, a joint study by WHO and UNICEF revealed that women make up 71% of those responsible for water collection.
That means millions of hours spent daily walking long distances through often unsecured areas. These journeys expose women to sexual violence and other dangers—especially when crossing territories controlled by armed groups.
These constraints go beyond physical safety: they hinder girls’ access to education and limit the time women can dedicate to income-generating activities. During pregnancy and motherhood, these risks increase, making survival in extreme conditions even more difficult. Around the world, millions of women bear the combined burden of gender inequality, structural violence, and environmental degradation that we can no longer ignore.
Yet their story—marked by suffering—is also one of resistance. Today, women’s roles in natural resource management, reforestation, and sustainable agriculture are finally being recognized. UN-backed programs such as Women and Climate Resilience promote their autonomy through education, access to financial resources, and the development of climate-adaptive skills.

Cover of the book. Éditions Erick Bonnier
At COP27, women leaders from around the world presented concrete action plans integrating gender equality into climate strategies. Their message is clear: protecting the environment and defending women’s rights are inseparable struggles. While notable progress has been made, much remains to be done. As explorer Fridtjof Nansen once said: “The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer.”
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.