However, I do think with a brain and feel with a heart and I am horrified with what I see happening in the world, especially in the treatment of women. This may be because of the good women in my life and especially because of a beautiful, intelligent daughter who questions everything.

Growing up on a farm I saw that my mother did an unusual amount of back-breaking work. This may be the reason that I notice the inequality shown to women in much of the world. But the subjects I have chosen to illustrate include four of the most terrible and they leave behind many more that could have been shown.

I chose...

• Genital Mutilation
• Honour Killing
• The Burka
• Rape: Weapon of War
• Loss of Name

Most of the five are what I consider crimes against women. Most of them are crimes that are carried out by men. Most of them are crimes that are carried out by women against women too.

Usually they are crimes that are part of a traditional culture or that reflect on a people's relationship to their community.

Genital mutilation is a cultural act performed by women against women.

Honour killing is a family traditional act sometimes initiated by a woman against a woman. Quite often a mother against a daughter. Usually with the consent of the women in the community.

The Burka is a way to restrict the life of the woman in the family. It keeps men from seeing her. Her husband is allowed by the society to join the modern world in modern clothes. I am to suppose that women would not lust after him in his stylish apparel. It is the woman who must be hidden with this hideous costume because the men of the society cannot control their lust when seeing a woman in modern clothes. It looks to me like a walking jail cell. Yet, women in the society protest that it is correct and that it is accepted by the women. Only they have the right to this opinion and I agree that it is their right. Only to me does it seem wrong and very restrictive. I believe that it is part of the cause of low esteem offered to women in the societies that use the Burka.

Rape: Weapon of War is another one of my subjects in this series. Rape is an act of aggression against another human. It is a form of control, humiliation and power. It is used in war to show defeat against the male enemy by attacking the helpless female. This is the only subject that I have illustrated that. I believe, in most cases women are not attacking women. Rape, whether as an act of war or not, is something that we should all fight to stop.

Loss of name is a mild attack on women as compared to the other subjects that I have chosen. Most women in our societies grow up experimenting with other last names attached to their personal first name. It is an activity enjoyed by little girls. They become thoroughly brain-washed. As a male I would be very upset to lose my last name. It is my identity. I believe females in our society would feel the same and rightly so. Fortunately, females in modern societies are starting to keep their last names when they marry. My daughter-in-law kept her last name. She is not just my son's wife and the mother of my grandsons, she is a lawyer. Her name is her identity. She chose to keep it and I am pleased about that.

The obverse of each medal illustrates the crime. The reverse of each medal is the same except for the name of the crime pictured on the obverse.