Women are not just victims; they are survivors and leaders on the community-level backlines of peace and stability.

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

I 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.

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

From 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.

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

I 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.