Women are part of peace keeping troops in countries like Liberia.

Women are part of peace keeping troops in countries like Liberia.

Growing up under Saddam's rule, I witnessed many injustices occurring everyday in my country and yet I could not do anything to prevent them.

Like life, peace begins with women. We are the first to forge lines of alliance and collaboration across conflict divides.

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.

My 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.

Sometimes you just have to jump off the cliff without knowing where you will land.