All around the world at this very moment, we watch as lawlessness—either by the true absence of government—or where leadership exists but rule of law unfortunately does not, destroys the lives of women, men and children striving merely to live by those standards we call “normal.”
We watch as parents in Africa sacrifice and show courage by putting their young girls into school only to be abducted by terror group Boko Haram…Then raped, tortured, beaten and sold off into slavery for a mere $15.
We see children lined up in the center of the Syrian city of Raqqa as though they are about to watch cartoons…only to see them inches away from live beheadings and crucifixions performed by the Islamic State.
We know that at this very moment, FGM, or Female Genital Mutilation is taking taking place in 30 countries across Africa and parts of the Middle East—where at least 200 million women and girls have been affected to this day.
We watch as families who have lived in places such as Egypt, Syria and Iraq for generations as Christians are being uprooted from their homes. Their churches, which can easily be called historic museums, are being torched to the ground and they are being forced to hand over all of their possessions merely because of their religious beliefs.
It’s 2016 and the Islamic State across Syria, Iraq and now spreading into Libya and beyond is taking girls as young as 9 as sex slaves and child brides promised to young boys recruited from around the world to come join ISIS…Where the horror of young girls forced into marriages is hardly a new idea brought to the world by this terror group – as more than 700 million women who are alive today were married as children and of those—more than 1 in 3—were married before age 15.
