On the occasion of the International Day of Peace on September 21, actor and activist Somy Ali speaks about peace, conflict, empathy and the often-overlooked connection between war and human trafficking. Known for her work highlighting issues surrounding the exploitation and abuse of women and children, Somy argues that peace cannot be measured simply by the absence of violence or the signing of agreements.

“For me, peace is not a ceasefire on television. Peace is a child who sleeps without listening for footsteps. A woman with a key that belongs to her. A man who is no longer hunted for who he loves,” says Somy.

She believes that the consequences of conflict extend far beyond what is seen on television or reported from battlefields. “Look closely at the wars men start — religion, old grudges, oil, land, the rumor of a weapon — and you will find the same hidden front: the human exploitation of young men conscripted with sexual exploitation of women and girls,” she says.

“Armies move. Borders shift. Girls are taken. That is not a side effect. That is the oldest war economy on earth. Bombs stopping is the beginning. Women no longer being used as territory is the rest,” Somy adds.

For her, empathy is an essential part of any meaningful conversation about peace. “No. Empathy that cannot see the girl in the wreckage is not empathy. It is a press conference,” she says.

Somy argues that conflicts are often driven by longstanding grievances, resources, ideology and political interests, while women and girls frequently bear consequences that receive less attention. “Most wars are not mysteries. They are faith used as a weapon, humiliation passed down like an heirloom, a fight for resources — or weapons of mass destruction that later look like weapons of mass distraction,” she says.

“And in every one of those stories, women’s bodies become currency. Occupied. Traded. Silenced. Lasting peace does not exist while men negotiate over land and quietly traffic the people living on it,” she adds.

When asked what individuals can do in their everyday lives to create more peace, Somy believes people need to pay attention to exploitation happening around conflicts rather than treating trafficking as an issue that emerges only after a war has ended.

“Treat trafficking as part of war, not as gossip after the war. When a conflict steals the front page, ask who is selling the women in its shadow,” she says.

She stresses that meaningful action can sometimes be simple and immediate. “Then do the unfashionable thing in front of you: believe the first sentence. Help the person in danger. A meal. A locked door. A ride. A phone answered on the first ring,” Somy says.

“Peace is not a summit. It is whether you look away when a girl is moved like inventory,” she adds.

On what could bring people together in a world divided by identity, ideology and competing interests, Somy shifts the focus towards the people who often bear the consequences of decisions made by those in power.

“The people who pay the bill men never put on the invoice. Mothers. Children. Boys conscripted. Girls taken to rooms, camps, apartments, islands, and private jets while the world argues about flags,” she says.

“You can fight about faith all day. You cannot fight the fact that war and trafficking travel together. A five-year-old pulled out of exploitation. A mother sleeping in a car with her children. A man marked for death because of who he loves,” Somy continues.

“If we cannot agree that human beings are not spoils, we are not divided by politics. We are protecting the trade,” she says.

Somy also believes that governments and institutions have a significant responsibility when it comes to preventing exploitation and protecting vulnerable people, but says individual accountability cannot be overlooked.

“Men in institutions start wars. Men in institutions also protect other men. Governments hold conferences about peace while girls move through the chaos those same governments failed to stop,” she says.

“Institutions matter — courts, treaties, intelligence agencies, the press — but they are late, and they are selective,” she adds.

Referring to the way major international stories can compete for public attention, Somy raises questions about how stories of sexual exploitation are covered and remembered. “What has Western media forgotten in the latest Iran conflict? Epstein. Not because Iran and Epstein are the same war. Because distraction is the method, and trafficking is the continuity,” she says.

She further argues that documented allegations and survivor accounts surrounding high-profile trafficking cases should not disappear from public attention simply because another crisis dominates the news cycle. “Survivors spoke. Flight logs existed. And still the coverage sprints toward the next explosion as if the sexual exploitation of girls were a closed chapter,” Somy says.

For Somy, reconciliation must also address what happens to victims and survivors after a conflict officially ends. “There is no clean war. Wherever men manufacture conflict — God, grievance, gold, or a weapon that may or may not exist — women and children are harvested,” she says.

“Human trafficking is not a separate cause I happened to choose. It is the private industry that grows in the dark of every public war,” she adds.

She believes that signing a treaty alone cannot guarantee lasting peace if exploitation continues. “Reconciliation that signs a treaty and leaves the traffickers standing is not peace. It is a pause so the powerful can regroup,” Somy says.

Acknowledging that survivors may respond to trauma and reconciliation differently, she concludes, “Some people reconcile. Some people survive and never look back. Both can be peace. What cannot be peace is asking survivors to be gracious while the news cycle gives the buyers a fresh war to hide behind. Investigate the wars. Investigate the men who use them. Protect the women they take. Fewer distractions. More truth.”