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Good Morning. As the world marked International Women's Day this week we have witnessed horrific attacks on women and girls in Ukraine. Three people were killed at Mariupol’s maternity and children’s hospital, including a child. Leaving the city of Irpin, Tatiana Perebyynis and her children Alise and Nikita were killed when a humanitarian corridor for civilians to safely leave was apparently shelled. The UN announced that the number of refugees as a result of the Ukraine/Russia conflict had reached 2 million. One million were children, and most others were women. The executive director of UN women Sima Bahous has said that women and girls pay the ‘highest price’ during conflicts like the one in Ukraine. They are particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence during conflict, as well as loss of access to healthcare, education, food, water and sanitation. Long standing conflicts distant from Europe continue. In Yemen children are killed by bombs, hunger and diseases. In Tigray women and girls are victims of sexual violence rape, and lack of access to life-saving health care. 13% of Tigrayan children under five and almost two-thirds of pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from malnutrition. Children and women have no place in war and should never be a target, but too often they are. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, witnessed the Mughal Emperor Babar’s conquest of India and his establishment of the Mughal Empire. As a religious leader he called out the cruelty and violence towards the weak and innocent in his composition known as Babarbani. Conscious of the impact on women he writes: ‘They lived in palatial mansions, but now, they cannot even sit near the palaces. Hindu women, the Muslim women, the Bhattis and the Rajputs had their robes torn away, from head to foot, while others came to dwell in the cremation ground. Their husbands did not return home - how did they pass their night?’ Though written five centuries ago, Guru Nanak’s depiction of a historical event and its impact on society has important significance today and reminds us that when falsehood, injustice, and tyranny take over, there must be accountability at the highest level - ‘if a powerful tiger attacks a flock of sheep and kills them, then it’s master must answer for it.’ Whether the conflict is in a distant place, or near to home we cannot sit by passively, it is imperative that as we witness and digest the horror and death unleashed on women and children we listen to and challenge the violations, and advocate as Sikhs do daily at the end of their prayers, for ‘Sarbat da bhala’ for the "well-being of everyone in the world".