Zainab Salbi Quotes

Sometimes you just have to jump off the cliff without knowing where you will land.

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

Every woman must own her story; otherwise we are all part of the silence.

Leadership is not about having the charisma or speaking inspirational words, but about leading with example.

Everything can be taken from you in a second, but the human spirit is so strong. War can teach you so much about evil, and so much about good.

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

It seems to me that violence against women has been tolerated for so long that the world has become numb to it.

Changes don't happen in the world by playing it safe, taking risks is the way to change the world.

The single thing all women need in the world is inspiration, and inspiration comes from storytelling.

Being a leader for me is about having the courage to speak the truth, and live the truth, despite attempts to silence our thoughts, feelings, and past experiences.

Unfortunately, violence against women is not the only injustice women face globally; it is one of the many inequalities that impede the full development of socially excluded women globally.

Without women's full inclusion at the decision making table, we cannot have any healthy decision making that is good for men and women alike.

It appears easier to talk about protecting women than it is to fully include women at all decision-making levels in peace talks and post-conflict planning.

As women, we must speak out, speak up, say no to our inheritance of loss and yes to a future of women-led dialogue about women's rights and value.

Stronger women build stronger nations.

Like life, peace begins with women. We are the first to forge lines of alliance and collaboration across conflict divides.

I have come to understand that in order to effectively advance women's rights, we need to galvanize a global women's movement.

The injustice is that women continue to be the main target of violence both during wartime and peacetime and yet there is still a lack of a public outrage.

No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.

Where has change ever been clean and nice? It has always been messy and painful.

One year of the world’s military spending equals 700 years of the U.N. budget and equals 2,928 years of the U.N. budget allocated for women.

From joblessness to lack of education and professional skills to sexual and gender-based violence, women face a multi-faceted oppression.

Do you know that people fall in love in war and go to school and go to factories and hospitals and get divorced and go dancing and go playing and live life?

If half the society isn't engaged on any number of sectors, success and potential will be limited. In that sense, I do definitely believe there is a growing movement and moment for women's issues.

Since war often enters homes through the "kitchen door," we need to understand women's attempts to keep life going in the face of shortage of food, closing of schools and reduced freedoms.

Working with women survivors of war has taught me that we need to listen to women's perspectives on war in order to understand how to effectively rebuild a country, a community and a family.

Leadership is about encouraging women to break their silence and tell their stories to the world.

I believe that there is an urgent need to restructure the discussion of war to include the impact it has on women.

I believe that leadership acts should be manifested by engaging in external work that can be observed and shared with everyone else.

I don't have a child, so Women for Women is like my child. But I always said I would step down after 20 years. I didn't want to be a 60-year-old woman holding on to something I created when I was 23.

I dont want to be someone in my sixties holding on to a group that I created when I was in my twenties.

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

Living in war is a co- existence with death.

The front[line] of wars is increasingly non-human eyes peering down on our perceived enemies from space, guiding missiles toward unseen targets.

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.

Growing up under Saddam's rule, I witnessed many injustices occurring everyday in my country and yet I could not do anything to prevent them.

War is nothing but a microcosm of peace... it shows you life in a more intense way and that's how I continue to live it... for good or bad reasons.

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

Women have never been a chief negotiator in any UN-sponsored talks.

Only 8 percent of peace talks have included women at any level.

Everything is give and take. The solutions are in the middle not in the extremity of the situation.

Only 1 in 13 participants in peace negotiations since 1992 has been a woman.

It is the diversity of views that stems from different experiences and different backgrounds that lead to healthy decision-making and not the unified experiences and unified views.

Passionately enjoy life!

Believe in your passions and act on them.