Because we live in a patriarchal world, where women’s achievements and contributions are often not acknowledged and properly celebrated, and because we should celebrate both female and male trailblazers everyday (not just once or twice a year!), we are sharing some inspiring stories of women leading radical change from all over the world….
Firstly, the BBC 100 Women 2019 has recently come out and can be accessed here. You can also have a look through last year’s list here. We acknowledge that this does not cover all the amazing work women are doing globally and whom we celebrate as well!
In Sudan, the very active role of women in this year’s protests, uprising and pro-democracy movement has been very inspiring and SIHA (Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa) recently organised a 3 day Conference on the theme of “Sudan Women Convening: Re-Building Sudan.” Please read about the Conference here and check SIHA’s excellent publication “Women in Islam“. A selection of articles from the journal are also available online here.
Please also read Nesrine Malik’s excellent article about the complexity of women’s imagery in the revolution called “She’s an icon of Sudan’s revolution; but the woman in white obscures vital truths.”
Since 30th April 1977, courageous women in Argentina have been protesting the disappearance and murder of thousand’s of their children in the military dictatorship of the time. More than 40 years later, their struggle for justice continues; please read more about it here.
We would also like to honour the many Liberian women who forced the peace process to finally succeed in 2003. Some of their story is captured in the article, “Women; Liberia’s Guardian’s of Peace.”
Current protests in Lebanon are also being led by women and you can read more on this in “the Revolution is a Woman.”
Finally, here is a fascinating piece about women in the ongoing protests in Hong Kong called “How Hong Kong’s female protesters are reclaiming the “basic bitch” stereotype.”
These are just a few stories of inspiring women that we have gathered. We leave you with some inspiration from 19th Century Icon Sojourner Truth.
embrace everyone 