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.

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

It seems to me that violence against women has been tolerated for so long that the world has become numb to it.

I 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.

Changes don't happen in the world by playing it safe, taking risks is the way to change the world.

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.

I grew up with injustice and could do nothing about it. But once in America, I had freedom of choice.