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The other day I just happened to be thumbing through a magazine that had an article on women’s rights and female mutilation. The article had one quote that really caught my attention, it stated, “Bearing the pains of mutilation is believed to toughen girls for childbirth and wife-beating.” Truly, an almost unfathomable thought.

During my life I have had the very good fortune of being able to travel to a lot of countries and sample completely different cultures. Extended periods of travel, or even your standard yearly vacations, are a tremendous way to broaden your horizons and increase your global knowledge.

However, one sad detail of world travel that has always amazed me are the hardships that many women (on a global scale) face on a day to day basis. In many countries women are the primary caregivers, the house cleaners, the cooks, the water fetchers, and the garden tenders. For most of us in the western world I think we would crumble under the weight of their duties.

Life is hard and it can be a struggle to survive everyday.

As stated above, life can be difficult, and if you include domestic violence or other forms of abuse, such as being treated like a third class citizen, then living can almost be unbearable.

According to Amnesty International, “Women and girls suffer disproportionately from violence - both in peace and in war, at the hands of the state, the community and the family.” Currently Amnesty International has a program aimed at Stopping Violence Against Women which focuses on 5 key areas to help empower the global improvement of women’s lives. The key components are as follows:

• Pushes for the implementation of existing laws that guarantee access to justice and services for women subjected to violence including rape and other forms of sexual violence
• Calls for new laws to be enacted that will protect women’s human rights
• Demands an end to laws that discriminate against women
• Urges the ending of violence against women perpetrated by a state and its agents
• Works to empower women

If you care about women’s rights please visit the Amnesty International website and support this organization.