As we celebrate International Women's Day, despite everything going on in the world around them, women are thriving to forge more gender-balanced communities across the globe, every day.

TimesAREchanging and celebrating women is becoming considered more and more thrilling as women of all age groups are breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations.

RaajjeMV English’s Women’s Day series features eleven of the many,MANYwomen in the country that continue to prove their worth.

Vice Chair of the Maldives Coral Institute, Rahil "Aya" Naseem, is a Marine Biologist who works on the frontlines of efforts to save coral reefs from going extinct in the face of climate change after beginning diving at 12.

Driven by the love for the addictive ocean, Aya was a part of the Raalhuedhuru program where she taught kids from around the Maldives to surf and is an advocate for the development of women’s surfing.

Some of her previous work includes environmental consultancy, reef surveying and monitoring as well as coral propagation projects. She also works with the MCI to bring together scientists and researchers in order to find solutions for coral resilience and protection of our reefs

“Sometimes people assume that you can’t do things because you are a woman. But as a woman you have a lot of strength and resilience, so always support each other and never let anything stop you from doing what you love”

Hindh Ali works at the National Center for Information Technology as a Software Analyst and has been working in the field for more than 13 years. She joined NCIT in 2014 and her main work revolves around developing software with developer who are developing government software.

"I have been in the IT industry for 13 years now. Attitude towards women in the field is slightly different now. I have been asked whether I can show dedication to my work because I had a child. I doubt they would have asked that if I had been a man. After being hired, I noticed that women in the IT department were mostly given administrative work. They doubted our ability to do any technical work. Organizations like ‘Women in Tech’ have really helped bring recognition to women in the IT field."

This next star is a singing sensation, Fathimath ‘Fezu’ Fezleen has been singing as far as she can remember. She has been in the music industry for 19 years and met the biggest, most enjoyable part of her life during 2006, when Detune Band came into existence. She is a linguist, and is fluent in Italian, French, Japanese and German. Fezu’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm when she sat down for an interview with us, about music, writing and reading, but not as much as they did when she began talking about her biggest passion; fishing.

Growing up with the four other members of the band, who are just like her brothers, Fezu is ever grateful for the family she has been blessed with, and wishes to accomplish more with them. Taking a walk down memory lane, Fezu said that their best accomplishment was studying together, which eventually led up to their first album, released during April 2014.

The band is currently recording their second album, producing the videos for four singles, and has exciting news for fans regarding a collaboration with foreign artists.

“My biggest advice to girls and ladies to work in music, first trust in yourself, believe in yourself, never give up as a woman you will face a lot of challenges, it doesn’t matter. Believe from your heart, work hard, genuinely, whatever challenges you face, just face it, at that time you will be thinking why did it happen to me, later on you will realize there is a big reason why that happened, face the challenges, take the beauty of it, take it positively and then just move on, trust your inner self, be proud that you’re a woman, always be very very proud that you’re a woman.”