Peul tribe man, Sofara, Mali, Africa

Couple in traditional costumes of Witch and Spattlehansel, Swabian Alemannic carnival, Gengenbach, Black Forest, Baden Wurttemberg, Germany, Europe

Bambara woman, Segoukoro, Segou, Mali, Africa

Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows by Adrain Isenbrandt dating from 1530, Church of our Lady, Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium, Europe

Mass in Saint Thomas's Chaldean Church, Sarcelles, Val d'Oise, France, Europe

A young black Brazilian woman wearing a head scarf and a wrap showing the national flag, smiling and looking to camera, Brazil, South America

Portrait of an old woman in a black and pink head scarf in Romania, Europe

Sultan of Agadez on his throne in his palace, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Agadez, Niger, West Africa, Africa

Tuaregs on their camels, Gerewol festival, courtship ritual competition among the Wodaabe Fula people, Niger, West Africa, Africa

Pindaya Cave Festival, Pindaya, Shan State, Myanmar (Burma), Asia

A woman watching from her window in Kotor, Montenegro, - formerly Yugoslavia - a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Indonesia cikado village, sunda, west java

Indonesia ciputat village, sunda, west java

Laughing Mixed Race woman using laptop

Black woman praying at shrine

Black woman reading at wall

Close up of a Bedouin woman, Sinai, Egypt, Africa

Women washing clothes in the open, Cattlepost Bothatoga, Botswana, Africa

Women singing, church choir, wedding, Bamenda, Cameroon, Africa

Muslim women on the beach in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa

Muslim women on the beach in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa

Muslim women on the beach in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa

Sign at the entrance of the burial mosque requesting strict adherence of the islamic dress code, Qom, Iran

Old woman of mountain tribe or mountain people Pa-O or Pa-Oh or Pao or Black Karen or Taungthu or dew-soo, ethnic minority, portrait, near Kalaw, Shan State, Myanmar, Asia

Smiling woman working in the fields, from the Pao hill tribe or mountain people, Shan State, Myanmar, Asia

Portrait of a man, Sehitwa, Botswana, Africa

Zainabu Ramadhani, 19, (yellow and red patterned skirt) her mother Fatma Mziray, age 38, (blue head dress) and Fatma’s sister-in-law Zaitun Hamad, 18, (orange wrap and white top) walk home after gathering firewood near Fatma’s home in Mforo. Mforo is near Moshi, Tanzania. Fatma Mziray is a Solar Sister entrepreneur who sells both clean cookstoves and solar lanterns. Fatma heard about the cookstoves from a Solar Sister development associate and decided to try one out. The smoke from cooking on her traditional wood stove using firewood was causing her to have a lot of heath problems, her lungs congested her eyes stinging and her doctor told her that she had to stop cooking that way. Some days she felt so bad she couldn't go in to cook. Fatma said, “Cooking for a family, preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner I used to gather a large load of wood every day to use. Now with the new cook stove the same load of wood can last up to three weeks of cooking. “With the extra time I can develop my business. I also have more time for the family. I can monitor my children’s studies. All of this makes for a happier family and a better relationship with my husband. Since using the clean cookstove no one has been sick or gone to the hospital due to flu.” Fatma sees herself helping her community because she no longer sees the people that she has sold cookstoves have red eyes, coughing or sick like they used to be. She has been able to help with the school fees for her children, purchase items for the home and a cow. “What makes me wake up early every morning and take my cookstoves and go to my business is to be able to take my family to school as well as to get food and other family needs.”

Mforo, Tanzania a village near Moshi, Tanzania. Solar Sister entrepreneur Fatma Mziray and her eldest daughter Zainabu Ramadhani, 19 cook lunch in her kitchen house using both a clean cookstove using wood and one using coal. One of her younger daughters, Nasma Ramadhani, age 5 helps out. Fatma Mziray is a Solar Sister entrepreneur who sells both clean cookstoves and solar lanterns. Fatma heard about the cookstoves from a Solar Sister development associate and decided to try one out. The smoke from cooking on her traditional wood stove using firewood was causing her to have a lot of heath problems, her lungs congested her eyes stinging and her doctor told her that she had to stop cooking that way. Some days she felt so bad she couldn't go in to cook. Fatma said, “Cooking for a family, preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner I used to gather a large load of wood every day to use. Now with the new cook stove the same load of wood can last up to three weeks of cooking. “With the extra time I can develop my business. I also have more time for the family. I can monitor my children’s studies. All of this makes for a happier family and a better relationship with my husband. Since using the clean cookstove no one has been sick or gone to the hospital due to flu.” Fatma sees herself helping her community because she no longer sees the people that she has sold cookstoves have red eyes, coughing or sick like they used to be. She has been able to help with the school fees for her children, purchase items for the home and a cow. “What makes me wake up early every morning and take my cookstoves and go to my business is to be able to take my family to school as well as to get food and other family needs.”

Dasht e Kavir, Iran - February, 2008: Bus driver and female passenger dressed in black reflected in the mirror of a bus enroute through the desert from Esfahan to Khur in Central Iran.

A woman wearing a hijab with only her eyes showing, Locarno ticino switzerland

Windswept woman wearing red headscarf