Irena Dzisiewska has plenty of experience as a peacekeeper. She’s done tours in the Balkans and Afghanistan, and is off to join the UN mission in Mali this month. Dzisiewska, a lieutenant colonel in the British army, is adamant that women are an essential part of all peacekeeping operations – and often bring more to the role than men.

“For a lot of women, or even men, who have suffered sexual violence, history has shown us they only want to speak to women,” she told a meeting of female UN officers in Pretoria, South Africa in early September.

The importance of woman in war zones was a constant theme at the gathering. Captain Shaden Ata Mohammed Elmanaseer, a Jordanian medic who has served in Gaza, Libya and Liberia, agreed.