Wojoud Mejalli is a Yemeni dentist, activist, and freelance journalist. She is one of the founders of Female Reporters without Borders, whose president, Tawakkol Karman, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Mejalli is the first female vice president of the Yemeni Youth Council. She is involved in many international organizations such as Crossing Borders, Denmark and Oxfam Australia.

by Katharine Daniels, Executive Editor

2011 was a remarkable year. People no longer conceded to sit idly while unjust economic policies and governments denied them prosperous futures. Around the world citizens began to occupy the establishment. At these global protests and uprisings women were common symbols - holding placards, marching in the streets, and speaking truth to power.

by Kira Cochrane, Homa Khaleeli, Jane Martinson, Helen Pidd and Katharine Viner, The Guardian, UK - Time magazine named The Protester as its person of the year, and women fighting injustice take pride of place among the Guardian's women of 2011. As well as lauding those who press for women's rights, we also celebrate great achievement – a trio of Nobel winners, political high-fliers and the stars of stage and sport who inspire us. See Slideshow on The Guardian

by Leymah Roberta Gbowee, Nobelprize.org, Sweden - Early 2003, seven of us women gathered in a makeshift office / conference room to discuss the Liberian civil war and the fast approaching war on the capital Monrovia. Armed with nothing but our conviction and $10 United States dollars, the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace Campaign was born.

Women had become the "toy of war" for over-drugged young militias. Sexual abuse and exploitation spared no woman; we were raped and abused regardless of our age, religious or social status. A common scene daily was a mother watching her young one being forcibly recruited or her daughter being taken away as the wife of another drug emboldened fighter.

We used our pains, broken bodies and scarred emotions to confront the injustices and terror of our nation. We were aware that the end of the war will only come through non–violence, as we had all seen that the use of violence was taking us and our beloved country deeper into the abyss of pains, death, and destruction. Read full Nobel lecture

by Sheila A. Smith, CFR, USA - 2011, of course, will be forever remembered as the year of the “triple disasters.” Only time will tell what this devastating experience will mean for the Japanese people and their society. For so many Americans, March 11 and its aftermath reminded us of why we so admire the accomplishments of Japan, and the civility and humanity of so many Japanese. From Kandahar to Canberra, from Seoul and Beijing, Japan’s friends around the globe responded—in part because of the tremendous scope of the tragedy, but also out of a sense of gratitude for Japan’s own effort to assist and befriend those beyond their own shores.

The impact of the disasters is too broad to discuss here. But as a long time Japan watcher, several aspects of the disaster and its aftermath stood out. The first, and most widely recognized, is the depth of gratitude expressed by the Japanese people for their military, the Self Defense Forces (SDF). As Japan’s “first responder,” the SDF performed search and rescue operations, opened and sustained supply routes, and filled in the manpower for the local governments that lost staff as well as infrastructure and communications. In June, when I visited Ishinomaki, the SDF were just beginning to hand back governance tasks to an inundated municipal staff.

Second, the disasters brought back into focus Japan’s Imperial family as the symbol of national unity. The Emperor spoke out in the early days as the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi unfolded to remind Japanese to remain calm and to have hope. He and the Empress also traveled back and forth to the devastated regions of Tohoku, visiting evacuation shelters and reassuring those who lost not only their homes but their family members as well. Read full blog on CFR

by Eva Bartlett, IPS, Italy - Yousef walks barefoot into a children's room with four beds and points to a snoopy-blanketed bed by the window. "That's where I sleep," he says. A red remote-controlled toy racecar sits atop a new mini-laptop. The closet is full of clothes, a pot of soup simmering on the gas range in the spacious kitchen, and the wooden dining table is piled with seasonal fruit.

Unlike the overwhelming majority of children in the Gaza Strip, the seven-year-old's naked feet are not a result of poverty. Quite the opposite, his home in the Rafah-based SOS Children's Village, run by an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), does not leave him wanting for shoes, clothes, school supplies, regular meals or a safe abode.

His home, one of 14 in the village hosting 111 orphans, is new, has plenty of natural light and is larger than the cramped refugee camp homes in which more than 75 percent of Gaza's population lives. Read full article on IPS

by Helena Smith, The Guardian, UK - For several months a stream of mostly young men and women, fresh off the plane from Greece, has been knocking at the doors of a large building on Lonsdale Street in the heart of Melbourne. The 1940s block houses the headquarters of Australia's biggest Greek community. In scenes reminiscent of the great gold rush at the turn of the 20th century, the men and women have travelled to the other side of the world in search of a better life. Unlike Greeks of old, however, these new émigrés are noticeably accomplished, with hard-earned degrees won in some of the toughest fields.

"They're all university graduates, engineers, architects, mechanics, teachers, bankers who will do anything for work," says Bill Papastergiades, the community's lawyer president. "It's desperate stuff. We're all aghast. Often they'll just turn up with a bag. Their stories are heartbreaking and on every plane there are more," he told the Guardian in a telephone interview. "A lot come here and are literally lost. We've taken to putting them in houses, five or six of them at a time, here in the centre."

The exodus is just one part of the human drama being played out in Greece where Europe's debt crisis began. Since June, Melbourne community leaders say they have been deluged with thousands of letters, emails and telephone calls from Greeks desperate to migrate to a country that, safeguarded from global market turbulence, is now seen as the land of unparalleled opportunity. Read full article on The Guardian

Jenny Shapiro is the Project Design Coordinator at International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR). In this capacity, she helps to conceptualize and secure funding for sexual reproductive health projects in the Caribbean and Latin America. Prior to her position at IPPF/WHR, Jenny was the US Grants Director and Outreach Coordinator at the Genesis Foundation, a nonprofit that supports educational programs for children in Colombia and Latino students in the United States. She holds a Master's in Nonprofit Management from Milano, The New School for Management and Urban Policy and a B.A. in American Studies and Spanish from Brandeis University. Jenny is a trained birth doula who works to give the birth process back to women and empower them as they make the transition to motherhood.

Dr. Carmen Barroso has served as the Regional Director of International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR) since 2003. Through its 40 member associations in the Americas and the Caribbean, IPPF/WHR provides almost 27 million services annually. Dr. Barroso has served on several boards and international commissions, including the Millennium Project Task Force on MDG 3 and the Brazilian Commission on Reproductive Health. She currently serves on the boards of the International AIDS Alliance and IBIS and is co-chair of PAHO’s Panel on Gender and Health. Dr. Barroso has published numerous articles in professional journals and popular media in Brazil and internationally and has consulted for numerous international and intergovernmental agencies.

Michelle Tolson is currently traveling and living in Asia after residing in New York City for four years. She has an MSc in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her program’s focus was community development, gender, sexual health and adult education. Her thesis evaluated a social marketing and health communications campaign on HIV prevention. While living in NYC, she helped publish “A Needs Assessment of Older GMHC Clients Living with HIV” as a research assistant for AIDS Community Research Initiative of America and an e-book, 2009 Broadcasting, Audio and Video Global Industry Trends Report for the National Association of Broadcasters as a research analyst for D.I.S. Consulting. Michelle has written several articles for The UB Post, an English newspaper in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia about gender violence, civil society initiatives and cultural topics. Her home town is San Francisco but her passion for exploration has taken her far away over the past several years.

Kate Hughes is a global campaigner working for Oxfam GB. Kate studied International Relations at both the University of Exeter, UK and EWAH Women’s University, South Korea; specialising in UNSCR 1325. Committed to campaigning on the issue of Women, Peace and Security, Kate has worked on such campaigns as Join me on the Bridge; Run for Congo Women; No Women, No Peace; and Green Scarves for Solidarity with Afghan Women. As well as a passionate commitment to gender equality, Kate is also committed to environmental issues and dreams of being self sufficient one day.

Jane Dabel is an associate professor of history at California State University, Long Beach. She is the author of A Respectable Woman: The Public Roles of African American Women in 19th-Century New York (NYU Press, 2008). She is currently working on a book about the economic roles of African American women following the Civil War.

(AJE) There are an estimated 1.4 million sex slaves in the world today and international trafficking is on the rise

by Ali Moore, Lateline, Australia - Iranian actor Marzieh Vafamehr is facing 90 lashes and a year in jail for appearing in an Australian movie criticising Iran's repression of the arts.

Paromita Pain has been a senior reporter and writer for The Hindu and has worked with several other media projects specializing in health, development and social journalism as well as writing for young people. A graduate student in the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California, her academic focus is on health, human rights, and prison systems.

Tess Bacalla, a freelance journalist from the Philippines, has written on a host of issues dealing with corruption and other socio-political issues, as well as women and children. She was a recipient of the 2004 Jaime V. Ongpin Excellence in Journalism (Investigative Category) and the 2006 Developing Asia Journalism (Women and Development Category) awards. She has been a fellow of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance, the Marshall MacLuhan Fellowship in Canada, and Media 21 Fellowship in Geneva, Switzerland.

A graduate of A.B. Mass Communication, she has written, among others for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Manila Times, Health Today, Business World, Jakarta Post, and the now-defunct World Executive’s Digest. As an editor, she has edited books for the United Nations Children’s Fund, John Wiley and Sons, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies.

She was the regional editor of Inter Press Service Asia-Pacific between 2009 and 2010. At present she writes for Vera Files, a media organization in the Philippines, teaches journalism at De La University in Manila, and occasionally conducts media training.

Next to writing, which is her main passion, she enjoys traveling a lot.

Rita Banerji is a writer, photographer, and gender activist. She is the founder of The 50 Million Missing Campaign, a global campaign that is fighting the ongoing female genocide in India. Born and raised in 17 towns all over India, Rita moved to the U.S. at 18, where she attended Mount Holyoke College, and later The George Washington University. Her education and work had largely been in the environmental field, and many of her projects had a gender focus. However, at 30 when she returned to India, she found herself at another crossroad. She now wanted to bring her own visions, beliefs and understanding of the world into the work she did. So she took to writing and photography, and in 2006 founded her campaign. Her book Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies came out in 2009. It was long-listed for the Vodaphone-Crossword Non- Fiction Book Award (India). The same year she also received The Apex Award for Magazine and Journal Writing (U.S.A.). An atheist and humanist, the closest she has come to religion is in her reverence for nature. Her vision for the future she thinks is somewhere in Beethoven’s 9th symphony! Her website is www.ritabanerji.com.

by Anne Thomas, Yes!, USA - A letter from a Sendai teacher describes the strange and “magnificent” community that survived last spring’s devastating earthquake.

by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times, USA - Californians are among the most highly polluted people in the world with flame retardants UCSF study finds. The levels in pregnant California women were 10 to 100 times higher than pregnant women in Europe and Asia, about two to three times higher than pregnant women in other parts of the U.S.

by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - PWAG, a Swiss-based agency, believes that the absence of war does not necessarily translate into peace. Although the number of wars has declined today, the level of violence has gone up. It believes that without women’s involvement there can be no permanent peace as they are the ones who come up with solutions that reduce conflicts, strengthen civil society and heal wounds.

by Beri̇l Dedeoğlu, Today's Zaman, Turkey - The escalation of violence in Syria despite the beginning of Ramadan has caused international pressure to grow even stronger on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey, too, is becoming increasingly critical of the Syrian government's methods.

by Erin Keane, Salon, USA - Roseanne Barr put the working class in prime time. Even if her presidential campaign is a joke, we need her voice.

by Deborah Mazon, Women News Network, USA - International members of the media and advocates around the globe speak with alarm and concern about the death of Mexican journalist Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz and the dangers for women journalists throughout Mexico.

by Sarah Grainger, BBC, UK - Created 36 years ago, the programme, known as El Sistema, is famous for its pioneering work teaching children from poorer backgrounds how to play classical music and has produced the world-famous Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra.

(Channel 4 News) The British Somali journalist Jamal Osman is the first reporter to film inside some of the worst hit areas - held by fighters loyal to the Islamist group al-Shabab. They told him there was no famine - describing the desperate conditions as a drought.

by Cecily Hilleary, VOA News, USA - Throughout the Arab Spring, the international community has been forced more than once to grapple with perhaps the most challenging policy dilemma of all: At what point should outsiders intervene in a country’s internal conflict and, more specifically, what does it take to bring down a determined dictator?

by Ulrike Putz, Der Spiegel, Germany - The trial of Mubarak is an historic event that should serve as a warning to the autocratic rulers in Egypt's neighboring countries. Mubarak is the first Arab leader to stand trial in person since popular uprisings swept the Middle East this year.

by Eva Bartlett, IPS, Italy - "My father was a boat-builder and I learned from him, worked on boats all my life. Now there's no work at all." Abu Fayez Bakr, 64, is one of two boat-builders in the Gaza Strip, the last of a dying trade, despite Palestinians' penchant for the sea and its bounty.

by Nikki Stern, Salon.com, USA - I'd been imagining the 10th anniversary as a cleaver that, like the event itself, would sunder my life into before and after. Ten years after the attack that took my husband and left me an involuntary member of a group of grieving relatives, I would quit 9/11.

by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - One positive result of the fall of Rupert Murdoch’s empire in Britain is that questions are being asked about the integrity of his 200 or so outlets that span several continents. Mercifully, the first bubble to burst was in a country known for its respect for the rule of law and human rights. Had a misdeed of this nature been committed by a media outlet in a country like Pakistan where governance is weak and the law flouted with impunity it would have been hastily covered up. In fact, accusing fingers would have been pointed at those wanting to muzzle the media.

by Alison Bethel-McKenzie, Eurozine, Austria - Political repression of pro-democratic journalists throughout the Middle East and North Africa; serial murder of reporters caught up in Latin America's drug wars; constitutional attacks on the media in Europe: free speech faces adversaries worldwide, warns the director of the International Press Institute (IPI).

Moyara deMoraes Ruehsen is a Brazilian-American economist, and Associate Professor in the Graduate School of International Policy and Management at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She has three graduate degrees (two Masters degrees and a PhD) from Johns Hopkins University, and teaches courses on Emerging Market Economies, International Finance, and Money Laundering.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor

June 8 is World Oceans Day – a growing global celebration of the big blue body of life that covers 71 percent of the earth’s surface.

“The ocean makes life on Earth possible,” reads the 2006 United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) publication "Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas." Generating nearly half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, the ocean “absorbs huge quantities of carbon dioxide, governs our climate and weather, regulates temperature, drives planetary chemistry, harbors most of the water and contains the greatest abundance and diversity of life on Earth.”

PARIS (New York Times) Which woman had the weight of China on her shoulders? It was not easy to tell in this French Open final, not with Francesca Schiavone looking edgier and misfiring more often than Li Na.

Andrea Dulanto received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Florida International University, and her B.A. in Literature & Women's Studies from Antioch College in Ohio. She works as a freelance writer and editor, and teaches writing at Florida International University. Publications include BlazeVOX, PopMatters, Elevate Difference, Sinister Wisdom, and Court Green. Her writing can be found at andreadulanto.wordpress.com

Rachel Muthoni is a Kenyan journalist. She holds an International Diploma in Journalism and Media Studies and is currently pursuing a Degree in Communications. She has worked in international and local media for the last seven years both in print journalism as well as photojournalism. Having grown up in a middle-class family in Nyeri district of Kenya’s Central Province, she had never experienced poverty first hand. However, she saw her friends in school skip lunch because their parents could not afford it, and attend school bare footed as they could not afford a pair of shoes. It is in curiosity of what poverty is that she developed a bias toward research and writing on issues relating to poverty, HIV, and the abuse of women and children particularly in slums and other marginalized areas. Her goal is to study at least up to a masters level and also to tell as many stories about under privileged people, that will change their lives for the better.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor

This commentary was originally published on Silent Heroes, Invisible Bridges and has been republished on The WIP under Creative Commons licenses. -Ed.

Does the successful bin Laden mission prove that U.S. values as a nation need not be compromised to wage a war on terror? Relying on old-fashioned intelligence techniques like surveillance and data analysis, the Obama administration successfully killed the head of al-Qaida, a figure who remained illusive to the Bush Administration in their eight-year quest to find him.

Chumile Jamela is a 28-year-old Zimbabwean writer. What inspires her to write is a deep need to document women's stories in Zimbabwe about how they have survived, are surviving the hardships, and how their lives can be bettered in an environment where women largely remain without access to basics. She loves athletics, reading and writing.

Where in the world are the best and worst places to be a mother? Watch this Link TV/Save the Children documentary – The Mothers Index – and learn about how you can get involved in supporting mothers and children around the world.

Nola Solomon is a dual French/American citizen and grew up in Washington, D.C. She graduated with a BA in English and French from Vassar College. She works at a literary agency in New York City and writes fiction. Previously she worked as a journalist at local newspapers in Poughkeepsie, NY and Washington, DC. She has lived abroad in Rome and Paris, where she played soccer for the Paris University Club. She speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish fluently.

Hebah Ahmed lives in New Mexico with her husband and two children. She is an Associate writer of MuslimMatters, and a contributor to I Speak for Myself. She has been featured on NPR, CNN, 20/20 with Diane Sawyer, and was profiled in the New York Times article Behind the Veil.

Holly Kearl is based in the United States where she works for the American Association of University Women in Washington, DC. Her passion lies in ending gender-based street harassment and she is the founder of the website www.stopstreetharassment.com, founder of International Anti-Street Harassment Day, and author of the book Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women (Praeger Publisher, 2010). She has written articles about street harassment for Huffington Post, Guardian, AOL, Forbes.com, and Ms. magazine’s blog. Her groundbreaking work on street harassment has been cited by the United Nations, the New York City Council, ACLU, CNN, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, the Guardian, Bust and Ms. magazines, ABC News, Salon.com, Feministing, and Jezebel. Holly received a master’s degree in public policy and women’s studies from George Washington University and bachelor’s degrees in history and women and gender studies from Santa Clara University.

Louise Hancock is Media officer for Oxfam based in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she works mainly on protection, humanitarian, aid effectiveness and peacebuilding issues. She holds an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a BA in English and Philosophy from Bristol University. Previously she worked as a journalist in both London and New York. Her family have lived in the Middle East for 20 years and she has travelled widely in the region. This firsthand experience of poverty and conflict led to a decision to change career and work for international aid agencies.

Leymah Gbowee (pronounced LAY–mah, BEAU-wee) led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, bringing thousands of Christian and Muslim women together to nonviolently demand that dictator Charles Taylor go to the peace table after 14 years of civil war. The women’s historic achievement of bringing peace to their war-torn country was featured in the acclaimed 2008 documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

Ms. Gbowee is recognized as a leader in current conflict resolution. She has been given awards such as the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award® and the World Association of Girls Guide 1st Centenary Award, and was recently included in Newsweek and The Daily Beast’s “150 Women Who Shake the World.”

Leymah is presently the co-founder and executive director for Women, Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A) a women-focused, women-led Pan-African Non-Governmental Organization with the core mandate to promote women's strategic participation and leadership in peace and security governance in Africa. She holds a MA in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University. She is the mother of six and resides in Accra, Ghana.

by Katharine Daniels, Executive Editor

In preparation for this year’s centenary celebration, one that early reports indicate will be the largest International Women’s Day the world has ever seen, I thought a lot about my role in the movement. In planning The WIP's commemorative event, I wanted to include the facts and statistics that need to be shared about the status of women, but I also hoped to deliver a solution for balancing and healing a world that has become so terribly out of whack.

by Kate Troll, Juneau Empire, USA - Does freedom mean I have the right to pass on my health care costs to others because I’ve decided to use the emergency room as my doctor’s office? If I can’t buy an assault weapon or avoid a background check through an unlicensed gun vendor, does that mean my freedom to bear arms is being stepped on? As you can see, I can become confused by what “freedom” really means in America. Or what “take our country back” means. From whom? We have no Mubarak to oppose.

Manar Ammar is an Egyptian journalist who was born and raised in Cairo. She studied fine arts at Helwan University in Cairo and independent film making in Chicago, Illinois. Manar's work has appeared in the Daily News Egypt, All Headline News (AHN), Al Helwa Weekly, Women News Network (WNN) and Bikya Masr. Her writing and reporting focuses on politics and women's issues in the MENA region (Middle east and North Africa). Other than traveling the world, Manar dreams of retiring in a small European village - with no internet - by the age of 40.

Faten Hijazi works as a project lead for a semiconductor company where she is responsible for the design and delivery of engineering solutions. She received her bachelor's in computer engineering with a minor in mathematics from San Jose State University and is about to receive her MBA from Santa Clara University. Faten serves as a youth group counselor for high school girls in her local community. She is passionate about working with young women to develop confidence and self-respect. Faten’s family immigrated from Palestine and she has lived in California since she was a few months old. She lives in Santa Clara with her husband.

Liz McGinn was born in London, England. She moved with her family to live in Northern Ireland in 1999, just after the peace process had come into force. She holds an Honours degree in Humanities with English Language and Classical History, gained as a mature student. For the past few years she has worked in the educational sector providing academic support to special needs students so that they can access mainstream education. Her ultimate goal is to become an English teacher and she hopes to train for this in the near future. Liz's interests lie in education, technology, politics, and the Arts.

Leanne A. Grossman is a travel and non-fiction writer who has documented women’s concerns and perspectives in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. She is a founding trustee and advisor to Girl Child Network Worldwide, an innovative girls empowerment model initiated in Zimbabwe, which turns victims of sexual abuse into survivors and leaders. She is the former director of communications of The Global Fund for Women. She currently serves on the board of Crude Accountability and is an advisor to TimetoGetSmarter.Com, which calls for a green economic recovery in the US. Leanne received a B.A. in criminology at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned an M.A. in international policy studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Leanne loves playing the West African djembe, finding adventure in wild places, and tending the garden at her home in Oakland, California, USA.

by Katharine Daniels, Executive Editor

This author profile is the first in a series of conversations between our executive editor and The WIP Contributors. Many women, like Binalakshmi, are successful agents of change in their communities and are leading powerful movements for peace. By highlighting their work we hope to strengthen The WIP’s role promoting the extraordinary efforts of our contributors.

Peace and Happy New Year from everyone at The WIP. –Ed.

In Manipur, a state in northeast India bordering the country of Burma on the east and south, a political conflict with India has persisted since the once independent kingdom was forced to join India after the British left in 1947. While the conflict is political in origin, the influx of weapons over the last five decades has prompted soaring rates of violence among ethnic groups in the region. Manipur has the highest number of gun-related deaths in India – violence that creates 300 widows per year. Yet the world rarely hears about Manipur or the “slow genocide” Binalakshmi Nepram has witnessed.

by Hannah Beech, Time, USA - Far from being a simple morality tale of good vs. evil, the Lady against the generals, what happens in Burma carries global significance. Jammed between Asia's two emerging powers, China and India, Burma is strategically sensitive, a critical piece in the new Great Game of global politics. This is no totalitarian backwater like North Korea. Even though many Western governments have imposed sanctions on Burma's military regime for its atrocious human-rights record, a new competition is unfolding in this crossroads nation: regional powers are scrambling for access to Burma's plentiful natural gas, timber and minerals...

by Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar, Middle East Online, UK - What freedom means to women is the ability to choose, and feminism is all about respecting the choices other women make, regardless if we like it or not, argues Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar.

by Nadine Wilson, Jamaica Observer, Jamaica - Men tell why they hit women and cook to make a difference. After seeing his stepfather physically abuse his mother on a number of occasions, 23-year-old Zico Dubidad vowed he would never lay his hand on a woman. But sadly he reneged on his promise recently when in a fit of rage, he too hit the mother of his child.

Merle Exit is a graduate of Queens College in New York. Her interests lie in travel, dining, entertainment and especially music, having learned to play many instruments. With a background in show business as a comedian, singer, and actress, Merle is the host of an internet radio show Whirl With Merle. Merle presently writes for Queens Times, La Voz Latina, Empty Closet and Giornal Italo Americano as well as the online publications, USA Travel Magazine and American Chronicle. Past publications include Edge, Destinations for Men and Long Island Impulse as well as my autobiographic book, Whirl With Merle, It's A Humorous Life. Merle's goal is to visit all 50 states and her dream is for women to rightly rule.

Born and raised in Damascus, Syria, Alia Turki Al-Rabeo is co-directing an Istanbul-based media resource organization Silent Heroes, Invisible Bridges. The UN Alliance of Civilisations and International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) awarded Alia the UN X-Cultural Reporting Award for this project she jointly developed. She has been a reporter, producer, and an anchor. She has also received training for digital journalism from the London-based Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). She reports for publications in the Middle East and Asia and online sources in Europe and the United States.

Stephanie Koehler is an artist, professional photographer and the founder of Heart-Filled Productions. Her work focuses on capturing the heart, soul and spirit of her subjects. Born and raised in Germany, she earned her Master's Degree in Linguistics from Bergische Universitaet & Gesamthochschule Wuppertal, Germany and moved to Spain at age 27. She has lived and worked in various countries and now resides in California. Stephanie's international background in marketing and event and program management combined with her creativity allows her to view the world through a lens of cultural diversity. She is an advocate at the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center and also works on a photojournalistic project that focuses on female survivors of violence, in which she highlights the beauty of traumatized women and gives them a voice to tell their story. Some of her photography can be seen at Heart-Filled Productions.

Eloisa Morra Pucacco was born in Italy. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Art History at Pisa University and Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa where she's currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Italian Literature. Eloisa writes about art and culture and gender issues for different magazines and online publications.

Huma Yusuf is a Karachi-based reporter and columnist for the Pakistani daily, Dawn. She is currently the Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. She has previously garnered the All Pakistan Newspaper Society award for Best Column (2008) and the European Commission's Prix Lorenzo Natali for Human Rights Journalism (2006).

Alexandra Marie Daniels is a writer, dancer, and filmmaker. Born in California, at age 17 she moved to New York City, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College. She choreographed and taught with Jacques D'Amboise's National Dance Institute and in 2000 returned to Sarah Lawrence to receive her Master of Fine Arts degree in dance. In 2007, Ms. Daniels attended the Los Angeles Film School and has since been working in film. She has made three films with the director Bernard Rose, including The Kreutzer Sonata (2008) and Mr. Nice (2010) and has worked with the director Martyn Atkins as a script supervisor on concerts such as Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood: Live from Madison Square Garden and The Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010. She is the Arts, Culture, & Media Editor for The WIP.

by Marie Trigona, Women News Network, USA - Known as the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, they have passed down a legacy in defending human rights as they walk steadily together around the plaza to show the world that they still have not forgotten what happened to their loved ones during what has been called, ‘Argentina’s Dirty War.’

Marian Wright Edelman is a lifelong advocate for disadvantaged Americans and is the President of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF). Under her leadership, CDF has become the nation's strongest voice for children and families.

Reem Abbas is a Sudanese journalist. She graduated from the American University in Cairo with a BA in journalism and mass communications and a minor in sociology. As a journalist, she writes about humanitarian issues from a gender-sensitive perspective. Ms. Abbas contributed a chapter to Voices in Refuge, a book published by the American University in Cairo press in January 2010. In her free time, she reads Doris Lessing and collects bookmarks.

by Katharine Daniels,
Executive Editor, The WIP

What began as a simple introduction to Zimbabwean child rights activist Betty Makoni in 2007 through an article published on The WIP has since developed into a partnership with the filmmakers of Tapestries of Hope and a nationwide event to end violence against women worldwide.

Tapestries a Hope, a film documenting Betty Makoni and the Girl Child Network she founded to create a refuge for girls in Zimbabwe, will be shown in 100 theaters around the country for one night only on Tuesday, September 28. In 2007 Director Michealene Cristini Risley traveled to Zimbabwe to film Betty’s work to help the victims of rape and sexual abuse and to expose the pervasive myth that sex with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS. As a result of her filming Michealene was jailed, interrogated, and deported from Zimbabwe.

Meghan Lewis is the Policy, Advocacy and Communications Officer for the Khmer HIV/ AIDS NGO Alliance and works to reduce discrimination against marginalised groups in the response to HIV and AIDS. She has been a key actor in the formation of Cambodia’s first LGBT group, Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK), a group of local and international LGBT volunteers working together towards a future free from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. She has published articles based on public health and human rights in Cambodian newspapers as well as international newsletters and websites including Purple Sky Network and Key Correspondents.

Meghan was born in South Africa and grew up in Kwa-Zulu Natal before moving to the UK in 1997. She studied Education at the University of Brighton and has been living in rural and urban Cambodia since 2008. Throughout her personal, academic and professional life, her primary passion has been to try to reduce the inequalities that exist in so many areas of society and work towards a future where opportunities are accessible to all people regardless of ethnicity, economics, gender or sexuality.

Rosebell Kagumire graduated from Makerere University in 2005 with a degree in Mass Communications. She's currently working on an internship with Isis-Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE), a Kampala based organization that documents women's stories in conflict and post conflict areas, as part of her Master's study in Media, Peace and Conflict studies from the University for Peace in Costa Rica.

Ms. Kagumire has worked with different Uganda media in the area of conflict and human rights issues that include Daily Monitor, NTV Uganda, The Independent News Magazine, and Uganda Radio Network. Rosebell's Blog won the first African journalist blogging awards hosted by Panos West Africa in 2009. She is currently on a VOICE fellowship by Oxfam, ONE.org and Wateraid to blog about Millennium Development Goals.

Rosebell Kagumire is interested in seeing Africa given its fair share of international coverage

(Al Jazeera) Iran has said it will free one of three Americans it has held for more than a year. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were arrested in July 2009 after straying into Iranian territory from Iraq. US authorities insist that they are innocent and say they should be released immediately. In a brief text message, the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced the "freedom of one of the American detainees on Saturday 20th of (Iranian month of) Shahrivar at 9.00 (0430 GMT) at Hotel Esteghal" in the capital Tehran.

Sarah Irving is a freelance writer specializing in social and environmental issues and the Middle East. Her features have been published in the Guardian Online, the New Internationalist and Electronic Intifada, among others. She is a former section editor at the Ethical Consumer and the Red Pepper. Sarah is co-author of Gaza: Beneath the Bombs (Pluto, 2010) and her biography of Palestinian fighter Leila Khaled is due for publication in 2011. Sarah Irving was born in London and is currently living in Sydney, Australia. She has a BA in social anthropology from Cambridge and an MA in political economy from the University of Manchester.

Katie Palmer was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She recently earned a graduate degree in Geography from the University of Toronto. She earned her bachelor's degree in geography and gender studies also from the University of Toronto. In the past few years, Katie has traveled to Southeast Asia multiple times to research the effects of and responses to the flesh trade in women and children. She lived in the Philippines for five months where she completed a Canadian-government funded internship at the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA). In her spare time, she volunteered at ECPAT-Philippines - an anti-trafficking NGO that provides rehabilitation and residential services to girl survivors of trafficking and forced prostitution. Aside from The WIP, she has written for Gender Across Borders, Herizons, and the University of Toronto Magazine on topics relating to gender, migration, development, and women and children in prostitution. She hopes to pursue a PhD in Geography with a focus on children and development in Southeast Asia.

Philippa Lockwood is a recent graduate of the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). As a volunteer with the Peace Corps in Niger, Philippa had the opportunity to see the unique ways in which less privileged women tirelessly support their families in order to survive day-to-day. This life-changing experience contributed to her personal drive to make a career of working towards a better way of life for the millions of less privileged women and their families worldwide. Philippa is excited to be a part of The WIP team.

Heidi K. Zirtzlaff earned her master's degree in international policy and conflict resolution at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, California, USA. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA. Heidi has studied abroad in Moscow, Tbilisi, Reykjavik, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Geneva. Through her travels, Heidi has come to believe that we all have more in common than we have in conflict. It is this belief that sustains Heidi’s hope for peace and understanding, even in today’s world. Heidi is The WIP's Associate Editor.

Grace I. Humphries is an undergraduate at Vassar College, pursuing a double major in English and Political Science and a minor in French. Previously she earned her International Baccalaureate while attending United World College-USA in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The United World College experience catalyzed her interest in education and inter-cultural understanding as a means to cross barriers and work towards making positive impacts locally and internationally. Grace spent her early years in Hong Kong before moving to California and spent most summers in England, instilling in her a lifelong love of travel and the desire to record experiences in writing and photography. Grace currently interns at The WIP, work she finds both challenging and engaging.

Alice Speri is a reporter and writer based in New York City. Alice recently moved to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She is working as a correspondent for The Haitian Times and stringing for AFP. Alice grew up in Italy and lived in New Mexico, India, Benin, Egypt and Palestine. In New York, Alice covered Southeast Queens and the South Bronx, while working for Al Jazeera English at the UN and completing her masters at Columbia Journalism School. As an undergrad, she studied comparative literature and government at Harvard University. Her name is pronounced a-lee-chay [aˈliːtʃɛ].

Danielle Johnson received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Lewis & Clark College and is a Master of Public Administration in International Management candidate at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Her interests include international health advocacy and non-profit management. Danielle is The WIP's Community Outreach & Development Coordinator and she is currently spending the summer in Theodore, Alabama working as a bird rehabilitation technician for the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) to help with the effort to rescue seabirds caught in the BP Deepwater Horizon well blow out.

Emily Wilson is a native Californian, living in San Francisco. She studied journalism at Columbia Univeristy, and has written for a variety of radio, print and online outlets, including Latino USA, KQED, NPR, KCBS, KALW, Agence France-Presse, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The East Bay Express, Alternet, Diverse Magazine and Edutopia. Along with writing, Emily teaches at City College of San Francisco.

Deepa Krishnan is a financial reporter from Mumbai, India. In the last five years, as a journalist, she has specialized in covering India's nascent commodity futures markets and commodity trading. She began as a reporter in Business Standard, an english-language financial paper, and moved to The Economic Times, India's largest financial daily in 2006. In 2009, she worked as a television reporter for the newspaper's newly launched TV channel, ET Now. She has a bachelor's degree in Economics, and has a post-graduate diploma in Journalism, with a specialization in television, from Asian College of Journalism, India. She spent the last year as a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, and has been producing freelance work.

Lien De Coster is a Belgian freelance journalist. She is currently based in Amsterdam where she works primarily for noticias.nl and laruta.nu, websites about social movements in Latin America. Apart from Latin America, Lien's main areas of interest are gender and the environment. She has studied English and Swedish literature and language, journalism, and conflict and development. She writes frequently for Belgian MO* Magazine (www.mo.be). During her studies she spent a year in Sweden and has traveled throughout Europe and Latin America. In the future Lien would like to explore the potential of journalism to generate positive energy while traveling and writing.

by Amy Goodman

NEW ORLEANS—The anger is palpable across the Mississippi Delta. As the Deepwater Horizon oil geyser, almost a mile underwater, continues unabated, the brunt of this, the largest environmental catastrophe in United States history, is rolling onto the coast, impacting the ecology, the economy and entire ways of life.

I traveled across the bayous and towns of coastal Louisiana for four days, meeting the people on the front lines of the onrush of BP’s oil slick. They are angry, out of work and read the papers about people getting sick.

One person, whose job remains intact—at least so far—is BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward. Hayward, who was paid more than $4.5 million in 2009, lamented Sunday: “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I’d like my life back.” Hayward becomes more vilified with almost each of his utterances, which are clearly aimed at minimizing the perceived impact of the BP disaster. He will probably be increasingly guarded in his remarks, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder just toured the area and, in a public statement, said: “We must also ensure that anyone found responsible for this spill is held accountable. That means enforcing the appropriate civil—and if warranted, criminal—authorities to the full extent of the law.”

Anna Kirey was born in Russia and lived in the former Soviet Union most of her life. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from American University - Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan) and Master's in Gender and Peace Building from the UN-affiliated University for Peace in Costa Rica. She is one of the founding members of the first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization in Kyrgyzstan established in 2004. A feminist and an activist, Anna is currently a Kartini Asia Fellow doing oral history research on women loving women and transgender people's organizing in Central Asia. Anna's areas of interest are the history of women's and queer movements, Soviet history, and research on female masculinity and other nonnormative masculinities, especially in the former Soviet Union. Both Anna's grandmother and mother inspired her to become an activist.

Maureen Nandini Mitra is an independent journalist of Indian origin who divides her time between Berkeley, CA, and Calcutta, India. She generally writes about human rights, environment and sustainable development issues but is equally at home writing about food and books. A journalism graduate from Columbia University, her work has appeared publications such as The New Internationalist, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, The Caravan, Economic and Political Weekly and Down to Earth magazine. When she isn't working, Maureen spends much of her time glued to her laptop reading 20 articles at the same time. The rest is spent playing with her two crazy cats, cooking large family meals, biking, learning classical dance and making long international calls. Her website is maureennandinimitra.com.

Barbara Callahan joined International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) in 1997 and is IBRRC's Director of Response Services. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from the University of Alaska Anchorage, where her studies included avian hematology and microbiology. Barbara has been a wildlife rehabilitator since 1991 when she started by working at a local wildlife center specializing in raptors and other birds.

During her tenure at IBRRC Barbara has helped to manage dozens of oiled wildlife responses in several countries and been part of oiled wildlife response planning, training and rescue in many countries around the world.

Paula Humphrey graduated from UCLA in 2004 with a B.A. in Russian Studies, and in 2009 from the Monterey Institute of International Studies with a M.A. in International Policy and a Certificate in Nonproliferation. Her written work includes Issue Briefs for the Nuclear Threat Initiative, "Iran: June 2009 Elections and Nuclear Policy Implications," and a co-authored piece entitled "Uranium Tailings in Central Asia: The Case of the Kyrgyz Republic."

She currently works as a Research Associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and aspires to make her way back to Eastern Europe in the near future.