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In recognition of March 8^th as International Women’s Day, Women of Steel asks that you participate in the following effort to stop violence against women around the world by adding your name to the petition at the link below and forwarding to all of your friends and family. After you sign the petition, please take time to watch the 20 second film - you will find it very powerful.

At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime -- with the abuser usually someone known to her. Violence against women and girls is a universal problem of pandemic proportions. Perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation that we know today, it devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development.

The "Say NO to Violence against Women" campaign counts on each of us to speak out by signing up. Now, the United Nations Foundation is counting too. It has issued a challenge: for each of the first 100,000 signatures to the campaign, the UN Foundation will donate $1 to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. We need everyone's help to get 100,000 people to sign on to the UNIFEM campaign so that $100,000 will be contributed to the Trust Fund for local initiatives working to prevent human trafficking, assisting survivors of domestic violence or helping implement laws against rape.

Gathering 100,000 names is definitely a challenge, but we know that together we can do it. Please sign on at: www.saynotoviolence.org.

Let's show the world that there is an ever-growing movement of people who say "NO" to violence against women. To learn more about the epidemic of violence against women, see www.unifem.org. To click and be counted, go to www.saynotoviolence.org.

Thank you.

--Nicole Kidman

UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador