POLICY PAPER| FES Mozambique Making women’s roles and experiences visible in countering and preventing violent extremism: the forgotten women of Cabo Delgado 1. Introduction The gendered impact of violent extremism(VE), and the roles of women in supporting or countering and preventing violent extremism(C/PVE), in Africa, remains largely understudied. i More than two decades after the adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution(UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) there remains insufficient attention on the recruit­ment of women into armed non-state actor formations and on their peacebuilding roles, especially in conflict contexts characterised by violent extremism. The WPS Agenda recognises the disproportionate impact of violent conflict on women and girls, affirms the roles that women play during conflict and emphasises the need for their inclusion in conflict prevention, peace­making, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. UNSCR 2242 (2015) specifically urges member states to“ensure the participation and leadership of women and women’s organisations in developing strategies to counter terror­ism and violent extremism”. It also highlights the need to integrate a gender perspective into preventing and coun­Cheryl Hendricks, Amanda Lucey and Loide da Gloria Sambo Macaringue November 2023 tering terrorism and to collate gender-sensitive research and data on the drivers of radicalisation for women and the impact of counter-terrorism strategies on their human rights. ii Yet, the emphasis on women in contexts of violent extremism is still predominantly through the lens of victimhood and, therefore, on the need to protect them. iii Highlighting women as actors in contexts where violent extremism is prevalent, either as agents thereof or as peacebuilders, remains peripheral to analyses of violent extremism. This inadequacy contributes to a lack of a gendered perspective and/or erroneous gendered programming in C/PVE and also contributes to the con­tinued marginalisation of women in peace processes. There is a growing body of literature on violent extrem­ism in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, and the peace support operations(PSOs) deployed to this region to assist with“restoring the authority of the state” and/ or to counter violent extremism. iv The role of women as survivors and as actors in this conflict, and if, and how, PSOs have mainstreamed gender into their program-