One Night Only: FMF's Fifth Annual Global Awards

6am flight from Washington Dulles non stop to LAX for one night only. What would you do if you had that ticket in your hands? Well, if it was to attend the annual Feminist Majority Foundation's Global Women's Rights Awards in Los Angeles, you would have your bags packed in 5 minutes flat! And that's exactly what I did.

Beyond the overwhelming glamor of the event was a cause that couldn't be farther from the opulence of the setting at the Beverly Hills Hotel. For the last five years, FMF has held these awards in LA to honor the immeasurable courage of women who risk their lives to fight for women's rights.

This year's awards addressed how women in the US are mobilizing to protect the lives of women in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and media pioneers whose work brings us the stories of women and girls around the world. With the recent resurgence of the Taliban and the US's renewed and newly coupled strategy in the region, FMF knew the time was now to breathe new life into our Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls, formerly the Nobel Peace Prize nominated (2002) Campaign Against Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan.

The three hour event, hosted by Mavis and Jay Leno, started with a live auction, followed by dinner and a panel discussion featuring the honorees. The list of honorees read like a roll call of some of the most amazing women in the world: CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, Roja Bandari of the Iranian One Million Signatures Campaign, Janet Johnson Bryant of the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, Billie Heller from the National Committee on CEDAW (The UN Women's Treaty), Abigail Disney and Gini Reticker, producer and director respectively of Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

Beyond the glitz and glamor, at the core of the event was the fact that the return of the Taliban has brought a brazen military assault on the women of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Shariah Law has been introduced in the SWAT province of Pakistan; acid attacks on girls going to school in Afghanistan are rising. The possibility that women's rights in these countries could roll back to the Dark Ages is a real and palpable threat. Unless women, both here and around the world, say NO: Not on our watch. And that is exactly what FMF President Eleanor Smeal urged the audience to do.

Christiane Amanpour spoke at length of her past and recent travels to Afghanistan, and shared with us her stories of the women she met there. Amanpour said that the Afghan people had helped the US fight and defeat the Taliban post 9/11, and paid with the destruction of their country and the deaths of countless civilians. She said every woman in Afghanistan is strong, every woman struggles. And when asked what the one thing they want the most for their children, Afghan women all say education. Before food, before health care, before security, she said they all stipulated that without education, the children of Afghanistan would not have an opportunity to determine the course of their own futures, and to lead lives better than those of their parents.

All I could think about were the words of Afghan feminist and activist Dr. Sima Samar who was recently in our Washington office recounting stories of young girls being burnt by acid on their way to school, having their teachers shot in front of them by the Taliban- she had no shortage of horror stories. Except for the fact that they weren't just stories: They were real accounts of what was happening in Afghanistan everyday. We simply cannot forget the women of Afghanistan again. Losing in Afghanistan would be detrimental to every single women's rights movement in the world.

Iranian activists Roja Bandari and Yasmin Manaucheri accepted FMF's award for their Million Signature Campaign on behalf of their sisters in Iran. Although they head the campaign in the US, they dedicated the award to their colleagues in Iran who have been subject to endless harassment and arrest by the Iranian government for more than two years because of their online campaign for women's rights.

The work of each honoree made me reflect on the amazing the spirit of the global women's movement. No matter how oppressive a regime is, be it in Iran or Afghanistan, a women's movement resisting the oppression exists. Be it underground or out in the open, resistance is there, women are organizing. I have no doubt that the spirit of these global movements have the power to win. But we must fight alongside with them. After all, our futures and destinies are interdependent with theirs- now more than ever.