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Facebook a partagé l’album de The Atlas of Beauty.

It's International Women’s Day! This year, Facebook Stories teamed up with The Atlas of Beauty to recognize six women who are doing their part to make the world a more equal place. Take a look. ‪#‎IWD2016‬

Þórunn Antonía Magnúsdóttir is uniting women in Iceland through a Facebook group focused on positivity and changing the narrative that women are catty and don't support one another. The group has more than 50,000 members, which is astonishing, considering that this is nearly a third of Iceland's female population.

I met Thorunn in her hometown, Reykjavik, during a freezing day. But her warm and positive personality made me forget instantly about the coldness.

Thorunn is a popular singer and songwriter in Iceland. She was a TV host and a judge for Iceland's Got Talent. But her life suddenly changed when she got pregnant.

During her pregnancy, Thorunn went through dramatic moments. She lost her vision and experienced nosebleeds and terrible headaches.

She was misdiagnosed in the early stages, and her life was in great danger. But she didn't let this bring her down. She remained strong and positive and the doctors came with the accurate diagnosis just in time to save her and her baby's life. She was suffering from a very rare obstetric complication, called HELLP syndrome.

Thorunn describes the moment of her daughter's birth as a miracle. They were both healthy and together they overcame that terrible challenge.

The pregnancy and the first months of her daughter's life made Thorunn see things in a different perspective. She remembered her childhood and adolescence when she had doubts about herself, thinking she was not good or beautiful enough, compared with women she saw in the media.

Thorunn says that she wants her daughter to look in the mirror and be happy and confident with what she sees. To focus on her intelligence, abilities and passions, instead of trying to be somebody else.

After she became a mother, Thorunn started to feel more connected with other women. One night, in December 2015, she was thinking about how much energy women spend working against each other when they should be supporting one another. She decided to start a Facebook group called "Góða Systir" (meaning “Good Sister”). She thought it would be a group for a few people she knew, but after inviting 50 friends, the group took off. She says in about three days, more than 50,000 women had joined.

She believes that women can make so much more progress toward gender equality by working together, and the first step is to reduce the feelings of insecurity and competition among them, which her group aims to do every day.

Thorunn noticed that in the Western world many women become defeminized. Some think that we’re supposed to be strong by acting like man, she says, but we possess a lot of strength and power in our femininity and we should celebrate that. Sometimes, talking about your emotions and problems is considered a sign of weakness, but Thorunn created the Good Sister group where women can share honestly their worries and dreams. Thorunn herself shared her intense experience of pregnancy and childbirth. Each month the group also raises money for a member in need.

Thorunn believes that all women in the world should be like sisters and she dreams about a bright future for her daughter. And she's already building it.

Icelandic speakers can join Góða Systir here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1647141338899488 Visit Thorunn's band page @[130640883677928:274:Þórunn Antonía = Thorunn Antonia] and listen to the new record she released on International Women's Day.

Jackie Traverse, a painter and activist from Canada, is using Facebook to give First Nations women who feel discriminated against by the taxi service an alternative to find a safe ride and an opportunity to call for reform.

When I arrived in Jackie's hometown, Winnipeg, I felt some tension in the air. The city hosts the largest urban indigenous population in Canada. But many aboriginals live in ghettos dominated by unemployment, violence, drug and alcohol abuse.

Back in the 60s and 70s, thousands of indigenous children living on reserves were taken from their families and brought to the city to be adopted or interned in boarding schools.

As a child, Jackie spent a lot of time in a boarding school, while her brother and two sisters were sent for adoption in other areas. After losing her mother, she found herself alone in the world. Without hope and support, she got into trouble and ended up in a women's jail.

While in detention, she started to paint. This was the turning point in her life. Jackie's paintings and birthday cards became very popular in prison, being bought by the other women. For the first time, her life had meaning. This gave her strength and hope to start a new path.

After being released, she took her portfolio to the University of Manitoba and was accepted to study fine arts. After years of hard work and studies, her paintings became more appreciated, and Jackie started to make a name for herself. But she didn't forget about other First Nations women.

Hundreds of indigenous women have disappeared, committed suicide or been murdered in Winnipeg since Jackie was born. She wanted to raise awareness about that and make a change. That's why First Nations women are the main theme of her painting and her activism.

Jackie told me that in the old times, her ancestors lived in a matriarchy. “We were very powerful women. We used to run the show but all this was taken from us after colonisation,” she says.

Jackie has three daughters and one granddaughter, and she wants to create a safer world for them. “I didn't have anybody to stick up for me when I was young,” she says. “But my daughters and my granddaughter have me to stick up for them.”

After experiencing racism, rudeness and violence from taxi drivers in Winnipeg, Jackie decided to launch a campaign on Facebook against the taxi companies. Beyond just calling for a boycott from aboriginal women, Jackie came up with a solution. She started a Facebook group called, “Ikwe (Women Helping Women Ride Safe).” The group lets passengers make requests and volunteer drivers post their offers. Drivers and passengers negotiate the price of the ride ahead of time and there is an emphasis on women's safety. More than 6,300 women have joined the group to give and receive safe rides.

"Ikwe" means "woman" in Anishinaabe, the language of Jackie's ancestors. Through the Facebook group, Jackie made the cause very visible and people started to donate money. Now, through Ikwe she can also arrange free rides for indigenous women, in need.

Jackie is one of the strongest people I have ever met. But she is also incredibly sensitive and delicate. While talking about her life, many tears came out of her eyes. Tears of suffering and tears of happiness and hope.

Women in Winnipeg can offer or request rides in the Ikwe group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/484949684963316

Professor Sana Odeh is the founder and chair of Arab Women in Computing, a remarkable organisation that supports thousands of women from the Arab world to develop their skills in computer science and build strong careers.

While meeting and photographing this wonderful woman, I entered in a world of technology with soul.

Sana grew up in a small town in Palestine. Back then she didn't imagine that someday she would make such a great contribution to empower and mentor so many Arab women.

After finishing high school, she moved to the US where she studied computer science. She realised that this is a field about the future that brings thousands of other fields together to make a difference in the world.

Five years ago, Sana started working at the New York University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She came to set up their computer science department from scratch.

She knew that the enrolment in computer science studies among women is really low almost anywhere in the world. But she was surprised to discover that in the Arab world, the majority of the students in this field are actually women.

She noticed the challenges and discrimination that most of these women have to deal with, so during a conference, she and other attendees decided to establish an organisation to support them.

So they began Arab Women in Computing and Sana's dream, to make a difference in the world, came true.

Sana used Facebook to organize Arab women around the world into different country chapters. In the organization’s Facebook group, they can communicate quickly and effectively by sharing articles, exchanging resources, and planning hackathons.

Now she organizes hackathons each year where students from around the world work on developing social good solutions to problems in the Arab world.

Sana says that the strength and talent coming out of the Arab women is very impressive. And I would add that her desire to support them is truly extraordinary.

Sana told me that all these women are very powerful and ambitious, but they need mentoring and scholarships. For that, Sana and her team need support to continue this tremendous project that combines technology and soul.

To get involved, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/abi.awic

Tabatha Moraes is empowering women entrepreneurs in Brazil through an exceptional network group on Facebook that helps them to connect, form partnerships with one another and share information to professionally improve themselves.

Tabatha lives in São Paulo, Brazil, where I met her during a dark rainy day. Figuratively, her life had many dark days. But this strong and amazing woman always managed to come out to the sun and build an extraordinary career.

When she was 6 years old, Tabatha and her mother moved from Salvador da Bahia to São Paulo in search of a better life. Her mother was cleaning houses, struggling day by day to make a decent living for her three children. Tabatha considers her the greatest inspiration and a true heroine.

Tabatha remembers that in school, kids made fun of her because she had a different accent, due to her birthplace. Once, just to humiliate her, a teacher asked Tabatha to read a text in front of the class, while all her classmates laughed. It was her mother who gave her strength and courage to get past this difficult moment and look into the mirror with pride and confidence.

When she was 16 years old, Tabatha started working as a volunteer, advising women in a religious institution, like her mother did. Tabatha realised that she loves to work with women, encouraging them to be the protagonists in their lives.

After a sunny period, the dark clouds again covered her path. In just one year, Tabatha lost her parents, her brother, and her unborn baby.

Tabatha was facing a chain of tragedies, and her maternal support was not there anymore. But Tabatha remembered the strength of her mother, her determination and positivity, and more that ever, she wanted to make her proud. She realised that life is too short and she needs to do something that makes a difference.

After becoming a career coach and working with a group of women, Tabatha realised they could all start doing business and offer services amongst themselves. That was when she got the idea of starting a women's network group on Facebook called Mulheres Que Decidem (Women Who Decide). For Tabatha, her mother was her greatest inspiration, a woman of decisions, and she chose the name of the group thinking about her.

In only one month, the group already had 2,000 members, and it hasn't stopped growing since. According to Tabatha, members started doing business together by becoming partners, suppliers and providing services to one another, as well as organizing workshops and conferences all over Brazil.

Tabatha thinks that women don’t have to compete against each other. They have more power to do business if they work together. Often, we copy the male model of doing business, she says, but we can find our own way.

Now the group has over 21,000 members, and the Facebook Page has more than 30,000 likes. It gave such visibility to women's entrepreneurship that Tabatha created a publishing company to give voice to women authors. The Mulheres Que Decidem network has expanded to Colombia and Paraguay, in order to facilitate business among women in these countries and encourage them to export their products. In the future, Tabatha dreams to expand the group all over the world.

The rain continued in São Paulo. But my talk with Tabatha brought a bright light in my soul and my mind.

Learn more about Mulheres Que Decidem here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mulheresquedecidem

The Atlas of Beauty a ajouté 7 photos à l’album International Women's Day 2016.

7 mars, 20:35

Today is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate women’s achievements and consider what more we need to do for equality in the world.

I partnered with F...acebook Stories on a project to recognize this day. In three weeks I traveled to six countries to interview and photograph inspiring women who, in part through Facebook, are creating opportunities for other women. They, like so many others, are making the world a more equal place.

Please read their stories and join me at 1:30 p.m. EST/8:30 p.m. EET when I will be broadcasting live from Facebook with Callie Schweitzer from TIME.

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