{"id":132116,"date":"2025-04-01T21:02:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T21:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/melania-trump-honors-international-women-with-awards-for-courage-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T21:02:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T21:02:49","slug":"melania-trump-honors-international-women-with-awards-for-courage-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/melania-trump-honors-international-women-with-awards-for-courage-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Melania Trump honors international women with awards for courage – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

First lady Melania Trump<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> to honor eight women from around the world who she said, \u201cprove that love can inspire extraordinary valor even in the face of vulnerability.\u201d
Tuesday marked the fifth time she was returning as first lady<\/a> to honor the recipients of the annual International Women of Courage Awards. It was also only the second public remarks the first lady has made since her husband’s inauguration.
\u201cI have harnessed the power of love as a source of strength during challenging times,\u201d said Trump<\/a>, who was dressed in a leopard print trench coat for the event. \u201cLove has inspired me to embrace forgiveness, nurture empathy, and exhibit bravery in the face of unforeseen obstacles.\u201d
Since 2007, the State Department has recognized more than 200 women \u201cfor their work promoting peace and prosperity and human rights in communities and in countries across the world,\u201d said Rubio.
\u201cThey do so oftentimes at extraordinary risk to themselves, to their families, to their loved ones,\u201d said Rubio. \u201cNot just important work, but work that took courage.\u201d
In her speech, Melania Trump<\/a> highlighted the contributions of Georgiana Pascu of Romania who was being recognized for her work promoting the safe treatment for thousands of children and adults with disabilities in her country through research, training and legal advocacy.
Pascu was instrumental in the adoption of the first law for monitoring visits to care institutions in the region, according to the State Department.
\u201cGeorgiana is a \u2018watchdog\u2019 who defends the dignity of Romanians whose voices cannot be heard,\u201d Trump said. \u201cShe fearlessly enters facilities designated as \u2018care centers\u2019 to rescue people with disabilities who are unwittingly held captive.\u201d
Pascu\u2019s work has led to dozens of offenders being charged with human trafficking, exploitation and organized crime, the first lady said.
Other recipients included women from Burkina Faso, Israel, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Yemen.\u00a0
“The 2025 International Women of Courage Award recipients come from diverse backgrounds and regions,” said Trump. “Yet, love transcends boundaries and territories. It is a universal language.”
Last month, the first lady dedicated her first public remarks against the publication of non-consensual sexuall<\/a>y explicit images, saying the consequences for victims are “heartbreaking” and calling the online atmosphere “toxic.”
During her husband’s first term, Melania Trump<\/a> advocated against cyberbullying with her\u00a0\u201cBe Best\u201d campaign<\/a>.\u00a0
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY.<\/em>\u00a0You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First lady Melania Trump\u00a0on Tuesday joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio to honor eight women from around the world who she said, \u201cprove that love can inspire extraordinary valor even in the face of vulnerability.\u201dTuesday marked the fifth time she was returning as first lady to honor the recipients of the annual International Women of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}