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23-year old Amani Yahya is Yemen’s first female rapper. Her mission is to use music to raise awareness about the status of women in the Arab world. Her songs highlight controversial themes: child brides, sexual harassment and the restrictions women face. Amani started writing lyrics in her diary while still at high school and taught herself to rap by listening to Lil Wayne and other artists. She started performing in underground venues in 2012 and has gained a significant following without having released an official recording. She faces the multiple challenge of being a young female rapper in a society that is deeply conservative and one of the least open to Western musical genres. When civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014, Amani moved to Saudi Arabia where she is unable to performing publicly and uses social media to share her music with listeners from around the world.
 
Meanwhile, Norma Bastidas's story is a remarkable tale of survival. At a young age, she endured the loss of loved ones, poverty and being trafficked as a sex object. She subsequently took up extreme sports and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest triathlon - running, swimming and biking an incredible 3762 miles from Cancun to Washington DC. Between emotional pain and physical pain, she says emotional pain is much harder to endure. Her hope is to use her celebrity as a super-athlete to tell her story about survival and to change society’s perceptions of victims of sexual violence and trafficking. "Be Relentless" - a new documentary chronicling Norma's journey is slated for release in early 2017.
 
Please join me in saluting these incredibly brave women!