If half the society isn't engaged on any number of sectors, success and potential will be limited. In that sense, I do definitely believe there is a growing movement and moment for women's issues.
Zainab SalbiSince a very young age, my mother made sure to tell me about the plight of women... As she raised my awareness about women's issues, she also made sure to ingrain in me the importance of being strong and independent and not to let anybody define me by their images of what women should be.
Zainab SalbiEverything is give and take. The solutions are in the middle not in the extremity of the situation.
Zainab SalbiUnfortunately, 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.
Zainab SalbiI grew up with injustice and could do nothing about it. But once in America, I had freedom of choice.
Zainab SalbiI have come to understand that in order to effectively advance women's rights, we need to galvanize a global women's movement.
Zainab SalbiGrowing up under Saddam's rule, I witnessed many injustices occurring everyday in my country and yet I could not do anything to prevent them.
Zainab SalbiI learned that victims come in all image - some raped, some witnessing an act of violence, some losing loved ones. I learned that the solutions come by both listening to the people impacted by the crisis and by learning from historical experiences in other places.
Zainab SalbiI believe that a lot of progress has been achieved to address gender inequality: We have moved from a time where women in the US could not apply for credit card without their husband's signature to a time where women are the owners of their businesses.
Zainab SalbiThe single thing all women need in the world is inspiration, and inspiration comes from storytelling.
Zainab SalbiLong-term trauma for women who have survived armed conflict is a haunting reminder that health issues and depression can follow decades after the end of war, but women who hope for healing can and do move forward.
Zainab SalbiI firmly believe today that the only way to stop violence against women is to speak out and refused to be silenced.
Zainab SalbiI find it amazing that the only group of people who are not fighting and not killing and not pillaging and not burning and not raping, and the group of people who are mostly — though not exclusively — who are keeping life going in the midst of war, are not included in the negotiating table.
Zainab SalbiThe front[line] of wars is increasingly non-human eyes peering down on our perceived enemies from space, guiding missiles toward unseen targets.
Zainab SalbiWomen 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.
Zainab SalbiWithout women's full inclusion at the decision making table, we cannot have any healthy decision making that is good for men and women alike.
Zainab SalbiHistorically 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.
Zainab SalbiIt 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.
Zainab SalbiIt 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.
Zainab SalbiEverything 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.
Zainab SalbiThe 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.
Zainab SalbiBeing 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.
Zainab SalbiDo you know that people fall in love in war and go to school and go to factories and hospitals and get divorced and go dancing and go playing and live life?
Zainab SalbiWhen war ends, women are the first to pick up the pieces. Where there is no market place, they go door to door. When homes are destroyed, mothers and daughters haul stones to rebuild or plow fields together.
Zainab SalbiWomen are not just victims; they are survivors and leaders on the community-level backlines of peace and stability.
Zainab SalbiFrom joblessness to lack of education and professional skills to sexual and gender-based violence, women face a multi-faceted oppression.
Zainab SalbiLeadership is not about having the charisma or speaking inspirational words, but about leading with example.
Zainab SalbiWomen in the Arab world have a rich history in their active participation in political change from the Algeria revolution against the French occupation to the most recent revolution in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya among other countries. The question is not their participation. Their question is the incorporation of women's voices fully in the new definitions of the countries where change has happened.
Zainab SalbiMy message to the world is that until we recognize that peace is not just the absence of war but the revival of life on the "backlines," where women are keeping kids in school, caring for the sick and injured, and daily negotiating space for the continuation of critical life processes of this nature, we're going to continue to miss the point.
Zainab SalbiFrom an economic perspective, women are treated unfairly: they perform 66 percent of the world's work and produce 50 percent of the food but they only earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property.
Zainab SalbiWhile women may look different, as some wear suits and others wear saris, or some cover their hair while others wear their hair loose, women need to stand together because they all face the central point of discrimination, although the extremity of which may be different from Kigali to Kabul.
Zainab SalbiIt seems to me that violence against women has been tolerated for so long that the world has become numb to it.
Zainab SalbiWar is nothing but a microcosm of peace... it shows you life in a more intense way and that's how I continue to live it... for good or bad reasons.
Zainab SalbiChanges don't happen in the world by playing it safe, taking risks is the way to change the world.
Zainab SalbiI by no means intend to simplify the challenges women face in any culture. Women are marginalized in all cultures in my opinion, some in more extreme ways than others.
Zainab SalbiWar 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.
Zainab Salbi