Ahklas pursued her work even after her father and brother had been imprisoned and tortured.

"I still didn't have any fear. I was determined to continue my profession. I had been a journalist for 10 years and that was not going to be stopped or silenced by the Taliban," she said.

Ahklas began covering the treatment of Afgan women under the Taliban from within Afganistan, until she was forced into exile and continued her work from Pakistan.

She still returns to Afganistan every few months to report on the conditions of women there.

"Two days before I came here I went to Afganistan. I told the women that I would take their voices to higher education in America," Ahklas said. "This is not just my voice you are listening to. It is the voice of millions of women, asking for your help."

Kelmendi expressed that what she most desired as a reporter and a founder of the first Albanian language radio station in Kosovo was an exchange between journalists in the United States and Kosovo to help resolve their conflicts.

Since the collapse of Communist Yugoslavia, Kelmendi waged a campaign against violence and to establish a free press.