Part of her 2009 commencement speech at Rice: Sometimes you just have to jump off the cliff without knowing where you will land. 16 years ago, I jumped. It was 1993. I was 23 years old and horrified by what I was seeing in the news about rape camps in Bosnia. I couldn't find anyone doing something about the astounding injustices women were experiencing, so I decided to do something myself. I cannot tell you how many people ridiculed my efforts. I was not getting paid, and a lot of people said: 'Stop doing that. Go get a real job, and get paid.'...At 25 years old, I was honored by President Clinton at a White House ceremony for my grass roots work. Even then I would not have imagined that 15 years later, Women for Women would be assisting hundreds of thousands of women in countries all around the world...If I, an immigrant woman from Iraq with no money, can do this, you can too.
