From joblessness to lack of education and professional skills to sexual and gender-based violence, women face a multi-faceted oppression.

Women 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.

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

I firmly believe today that the only way to stop violence against women is to speak out and refused to be silenced.

I dont want to be someone in my sixties holding on to a group that I created when I was in my twenties.

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