Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton Honor 10 Women with International Women of Courage Awards (PHOTOS)

On the occasion of the International Women's Day on March 8, 2012, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed and honored 10 women from across the globe with the International Women of Courage Awards.

Held at the State Department in Washington, the ceremony was part of a series of events to mark the event of the International Women's Day and included recipients from places like Libya, Burma, Colombia and Pakistan.

I want to recognize most of all the ten Women of Courage that we're honoring here today, said the First Lady at the event.

These women come from all different corners of the globe. They have taken very different journeys to this moment. But they are all here today because somewhere along the line, they decided they could no longer accept the world as it is... They saw violence, poverty, discrimination, and inequality and they decided to use their voices, and risk their lives, to do something about it, she further mentioned.

The complete list of recipients of the 2012 award includes Aneesa Ahmed of Maldives, Zin Mar Aung of Burma, Samar Badawi of Saudi Arabia, Shad Begum of Pakistan, Maryam Durani of Afghanistan, Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo of Brazil, Hana Elhebshi of Libya, Jineth Bedoya Lima of Colombia, ?afak Pavey of Turkey and Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih of Sudan.

For the occasion, Obama and Clinton were also joined by two of the three women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, a journalist who led Yemeni women in the uprising in the country.

Start the slideshow to get a glimpse of the 2012 International Women of Courage Awards ceremony: