First lady Michelle Obama and former first lady-turned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the 2012 Women of Courage awards to 10 women from around the world who have worked to improve the lives of women and girls despite obstacles and dangers that included imprisonment, torture and rape.

The awards, presented at a ceremony at the State Department today, which is International Women's Day, went to women from countries such as Afghanistan, Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, Colombia and Brazil, among others.

"They are all here today because somewhere along the line, they decided they could no longer accept the world as it is, and they committed themselves to fighting for the world as they know it should be," Obama said according to the White House transcript.

She also praised Clinton, who ran a strong race for the Democratic presidential nomination that Barack Obama won in 2008, as an "inspiration" and "role model" for herself and women around the world. "So with all the respect and admiration that I can give to her, I will be wherever she needs me to be, whenever she needs me to be there," Obama promised.

The two women were a study in contrasts. Obama, tall and slender, wore a white jacquard-print sleeveless sheath dress adorned with a large white flower broach. Clinton, shorter and blonder, wore a loose black jacket and pants, also adorned with a white broach.

The women they were there to honor had brave, inspiring and terrible stories. Jineth Bedoya Lima, an investigative journalist from Colombia, has continued to write about women's issues despite having been kidnapped, gang-raped and tortured for uncovering an arms smuggling network. Zin Mar Aung of Myanmar (Burma, as the British called it) spent years as a political prisoner. Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, of the Rio de Janeiro military police, worked to shut down drug-dealing operations and arrest gang members.

The awards, aimed at honoring women and girls who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness and willingness to sacrifice for others for women's rights, have been presented every year since 2007; so far, 46 women from 34 countries have been honored. The awards were established by Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under the George W. Bush administration.