In a context of unequal distribution of water resources, population growth and economic development, water increasingly plays the role of strategic variable able to alter the geopolitical balance especially in those areas where water sources are shared by several countries. This article aims to analyze the Tigris-Euphrates basin dispute where the historical contention over the management and the exploitation of water shared by Turkey, Syria and Iraq is exacerbated by the effect of climate change and the entry of new players in the control of the resource. The increased frequency and intensity of drought amplifies the gap between water supply and demand while the new hydrological order designed by the expansion of the Islamic State, restricts the access to the resource by the most vulnerable populations. Particularly disadvantaged are women who are daily entrusted with the daunting charge of scarce water resources management and allocation between different uses. The control by the Islamic State of large dams along the course of the two rivers, the use of water as an instrument of pressure and the resulting deterioration in the quality and quantity of the resource, not only increase the amount of work that women have to spend for the collection and distribution of water but threaten food security and the health of them and of their families.