The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Liberian activist rallied her countrywomen to demand peace from warlord Charles Taylor and to pressure Liberia's politicians to end a brutal civil war.

The renowned Cuban dissident blogger uses her technical know-how to blast the Castro government's repressive censorship and to call for free speech in her still-cloistered island nation.

A South African legend (and the partner of murdered anti-apartheid hero Steve Biko), Ramphele is fearless in her criticism of endemic corruption in the ruling ANC party.

The Somali doctor and human-rights activist runs a camp and hospital for close to 100,000 displaced people in her wartorn homeland. Her outspoken condemnation of Islamic militias routinely places her at great peril.

A women's-rights activist turned parliamentarian, she's leading the charge to safeguard the precarious status of Afghanistan's women-- and has launched a bid to become the country's first female president in 2014.

One of the first anti-globalization activists and environmental crusaders, Shiva has long pushed to protect India's most vulnerable communities, including female farmers, against exploitation by multinationals.

The first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, the journalist and activist was at the vanguard of Yemen's Arab Spring movement, and has been dubbed "Mother of the Revolution" by her countrymen.

The fiery activist, who tweets under the name @AngryArabiya, has 33,000 Twitter followers, who tune in for her updates on Bahrain's protest movement. Al-Khawaja and her family have been arrested repeatedly by the government.

A survivor of Cambodia's sex industry, Mam and her foundation have relentlessly pressed Asian governments to crack down on the insidious trafficking networks that prey on the region's women and children.

The Russian author and journalist has trained her sharp eye on Vladimir Putin's shadowy history in "The Man Without A Face" and has lambasted the Kremlin for its crackdowns on LGBT citizens.

An Egyptian activist and blogger, she was active in the country's Arab Spring revolution and has continued to call for government transparency and more representation for women in parliament.

A Tunisian blogger active in the country's Jasmine Revolution, she was one of the few online activists to use her real name to call for the downfall of the Ben Ali regime.