International Women's Day honors courageous women around the world like Fatma El-Mehdi, the first woman from the Western Sahara to attend a UN conference on women's rights. Ever since fleeing her home as a child, she has been dedicated to the cause of a free Western Sahara. There's another issue she's equally passionate about, however: women's rights.

Fatma El-Mehdi is the General Secretary of the Saharawi National Union of Women.