Sometimes you just have to jump off the cliff without knowing where you will land.
I firmly believe today that the only way to stop violence against women is to speak out and refused to be silenced.
Leadership is not about having the charisma or speaking inspirational words, but about leading with example.
Without women's full inclusion at the decision making table, we cannot have any healthy decision making that is good for men and women alike.
It seems to me that violence against women has been tolerated for so long that the world has become numb to it.
Every woman must own her story; otherwise we are all part of the silence.
Women are not just victims; they are survivors and leaders on the community-level backlines of peace and stability.
Changes don't happen in the world by playing it safe, taking risks is the way to change the world.
War is not a computer-generated missile striking a digital map. War is the color of earth as it explodes in our faces, the sound of child pleading, the smell of smoke and fear. Women survivors of war are not the single image portrayed on the television screen, but the glue that holds families and countries together. Perhaps by understanding women, and the other side of war ... we will have more humility in our discussions of wars... perhaps it is time to listen to womens side of history.
Stronger women build stronger nations.
The single thing all women need in the world is inspiration, and inspiration comes from storytelling.
Everything can be taken from you in a second, but the human spirit is so strong. War can teach you so much about evil, and so much about good.
The injustice is that women continue to be the main target of violence both during wartime and peacetime and yet there is still a lack of a public outrage.
Believe in your passions and act on them.
Being a leader for me is about having the courage to speak the truth, and live the truth, despite attempts to silence our thoughts, feelings, and past experiences.
Living in war is a co- existence with death.
Everything is give and take. The solutions are in the middle not in the extremity of the situation.
It appears easier to talk about protecting women than it is to fully include women at all decision-making levels in peace talks and post-conflict planning.
As women, we must speak out, speak up, say no to our inheritance of loss and yes to a future of women-led dialogue about women's rights and value.
It is the diversity of views that stems from different experiences and different backgrounds that lead to healthy decision-making and not the unified experiences and unified views.
Unfortunately, violence against women is not the only injustice women face globally; it is one of the many inequalities that impede the full development of socially excluded women globally.
Like life, peace begins with women. We are the first to forge lines of alliance and collaboration across conflict divides.
Women still need higher political representation and to be included at decision making tables in all issues in order for solutions that relates from peace to food, to health, to basic stability in the world. We cannot continue to marginalize half of the population in the world in finding sustainable solutions that are good for all.
Historically speaking, religious and conservative groups always wanted the control over the private sphere that impacts women most, as reflected by family law and women's access to resources and mobility. And often secular groups traded this for economic incentives and trade.
Only 1 in 13 participants in peace negotiations since 1992 has been a woman.
