Filmed in 15 countries, this collection of video segments spotlights Malalai Joya, Mukhtar Mai, and 17 other women who are making a difference in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Segments include…

Africa

• Sierra Leone—Among the Numbers: This clip profiles 58-year-old Mary Musa, the first female council chair in the town of Koidu. One of few women to have risen to leadership via the grassroots, she is also a widow raising five children of her own and 15 orphans.

• Ghana—Picking Up the Pieces: This clip profiles Comfort Adongo. Abducted and forced into marriage at 14, 32-year-old Comfort is finally free to pick up the pieces of her disrupted life and finish her schooling.

• Nigeria—Love of Indigo: This clip profiles Nike Okundaye, an internationally renowned artist specializing in traditional Yoruba indigo art. Having overcome great disadvantages, she trains disenfranchised young Nigerian women in the arts so they can become self-supporting.

• South Africa—Finding Grace: This clip profiles 74-year-old Ma Grace Masuku, a community health worker training young women in rural South Africa in the ways of traditional medicine to encourage self-sufficiency and self-respect.

• Zimbabwe—Untapped Resources: This clip profiles Dudu Manhenga, a victim of family violence. As the singer in the popular band Color Blu, she uses her music as a platform to speak out on behalf of women, who are greatly underrepresented—and sorely needed—in Zimbabwean politics.

• Rwanda—Who Is the Rwandan Woman? This clip profiles Sula Karuhimbi, an 87-year-old traditional healer, and social worker Godelieve Mukasarasi—two of the exceptional women leading efforts to rebuild Rwanda since the 1986 genocide.

• Uganda—Enterprising Women: This clip profiles Grace Lwemamu and Mary Kaddu, two struggling small business owners who have taken part in a national mentoring initiative that pairs experienced entrepreneurs with women in need of business training.

• Kenya—The Power of Her Voice: This clip profiles Njoki Ndung’u, one of only a handful of female members of Kenya’s male-dominated National Assembly. In 2006, she made history when she and her supporters succeeded in winning approval for a law that finally criminalizes violence against women.

Middle East

• Jordan—Visions of a Woman: This clip profiles Nawal al-Faouri, one of only seven female senators in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In an effort to empower young Jordanian women, she has started a school to educate them about their rights.

• Lebanon—In the Eye of the Storm: This clip profiles Fadia Bazzeh, a single mother and a producer for the Lebanese television channel New TV. Determined to show what was happening in her home region when Israeli warplanes bombed southern Lebanon in 2006, she voluntarily reported from the front line at great personal risk.

South Asia

• Pakistan—Mukhtar Mai and the Struggle for Justice: This clip profiles Mukhtar Mai, who won a criminal complaint against men of a rival clan who gang-raped her in an act of retaliation for an alleged indiscretion of her 14-year-old brother. She has used her monetary compensation to start a school and women’s welfare center.

• India—Queens of the Grassroots: This clip profiles Harjeet Kaur, Jaswinder Kaur, and Mahender Pal Kaur, who have each been elected to serve as head of their village councils in the Indian state of Punjab. Fighting sexism and prejudice, they are working to make a difference.

• Nepal—Lily Counts: This clip profiles Lily Thapa, who has turned her firsthand experience of the culturally ingrained prejudice against Nepalese widows into action. Her organization, Women for Human Rights, is helping widows throughout Nepal to live dignified and productive lives.

• Bangladesh—Long Way to Go: This clip profiles Shukla Rani, who is fighting for justice. In love with her neighbor, the couple was secretly married—but her husband instantly abandoned her when his family refused to accept the union. She was then attacked by her brother-in-law and another man, who threw acid on her.

• Afghanistan—Bravery: This clip profiles 27-year-old Afghan MP Malalai Joya. After winning election to Afghanistan’s parliament, she openly condemned the warlords in parliament as war criminals. Despite death threats and assassination attempts, she continues to fight against injustice and for women’s rights.

(80 minutes)