A week ago, I wrote about the questions I’m wading through as a woman. “See, this place in history, in MY history as well as in our collective history, is tearing at the soul of woman.”

And then, this week I read this post from Ann Voskamp:

 What the News isn’t telling You & Why We Can’t Afford to Pretend It’s Not Happening [Sozan’s Impossible Choice — and Our Very Possible One] | A Holy Experience.

My initial reaction was heartbreak. An ache -for these girls, these mothers- that cannot be bottled up in language.

And what followed was a deep frustration that we are, that I am, asking questions about if women should preach or lead or have ambition while across the world and down the street little girls are being ripped open.

But, the questions of a woman’s worth, a woman’s ambition, a woman’s place in leadership matter because those little girls matter.

See, what we believe for our sisters in America, must also be what we believe for the little girl in Iraq. If you believe that your sister, your daughter, your friend, should have an opportunity to live in the fullness of who she was made to be, to follow her dreams, to be honored for the wisdom and ideas and creativity she brings to the world, then that should spill over to the girls in Iraq and Haiti, and Kenya, and India who are being bought and sold.

And the opposite is true as well. If we don’t think it is worth fighting for the little girl in Iraq, if she isn’t valuable enough to move us to action, then we have made evident what we believe about the worth and the place of a woman. If a sweet 9-year-old can be treated like property and ripped open and sewn up over and over and we look away, then we cannot honestly say we think women have value and should be allowed to pursue dreams.

And even beyond the church, if as women we want to demand the freedom to love who we want, pursue the careers that we want, do what we choose with our bodies, but we won’t fight the same battles for our sisters who cannot fight for themselves, we are the most pitiful and useless of warriors.

I don’t agree with every battle women are fighting. I don’t agree with every choice every woman makes. I cannot definitively say I am certain of the right answers. But, I do believe that every woman is beautifully and intentionally created by God and as such has an intrinsic, immeasurable worth and we cannot sit silent while our daughters are suffering.