Women’s Rights
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Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 in the Swat district of Pakistan. She was educated by her father, Ziauddin, a poet and the owner of several private schools, who dissuaded her from a career as a doctor and encouraged her to pursue politics instead. In 2007, the Taliban, an extremist Islamic group, began fighting the…
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Sonita Alizadeh
When Sonita Alizadeh was born in Afghanistan in 1996, the country was controlled by the Taliban. Daily life was dangerous, and her childhood was quite difficult. She was only 10 when her family tried to sell her to a man who wanted to marry her—a very common occurrence in too many countries around the world.…
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Tawakkol Karman
Tawakkol Karman was born in 1979 in Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, often described as a place of learning in a conservative country. In 1990, she witnessed the unification of North and South Yemen, followed by a civil war in 1994 in which the North triumphed. This led to dissidence in the South, as the…
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Juliana Dogbadzi
Interview with Kerry Kennedy I have never been in a classroom. I have never been to school. When I was seven years old, my parents took me from our home and sent me to a shrine where I was a slave to a fetish priest for seventeen years. My grandfather, they said, had stolen two…
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Erin Merryn
At age six, Erin experienced sexual abuse for the first time by a neighbor at a friend’s sleepover. Just a few weeks shy of her seventh birthday in 1992, Erin was raped by the same person. Threatened and scared, Erin went to bed every night crying, having nightmares, afraid to tell anyone what had happened…
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Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai was born in Kenya in 1940 to a family of farmers, giving her a deep connection to the land. At that time, Kenya was a British colony, and British officials held the power to make decisions for the Kenyan people. But as Maathai was growing up, the British government was in the process…
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Rana Husseini
Biography Journalist, feminist, and human rights defender, Rana Husseini broke the silence and exposed the shame of Jordan when she unveiled the common but unspoken crime of honor killings there. Honor killings happen when a woman is raped or is said to have participated in illicit sexual activity. Across the globe, women who are beaten,…
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Fauziya Kassindja
Biography: Fauziya Kassindja narrowly escaped female genital mutilation by fleeing from her remote village in Togo under cover of night and making her way to the United States where, in December 1994, she sought political asylum. Instead of receiving this seventeen-year-old orphan with understanding and humanity, U.S. officials proceeded to strip her naked, put her…
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Maria Teresa Tula
Biography: Maria Teresa Tula is a leader of the Co-Madres (Mothers of the Disappeared) of El Salvador, a group of impoverished, mostly illiterate women whose husbands or children were kidnapped or killed by death squads and government security forces during El Salvador’s bloody civil war. The 1980s conflict pitted leftist organizations and campesino farmer-based guerrillas…
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Shirin Ebadi
Excerpts From Shirin Ebadi’s 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture I feel extremely honoured that today my voice is reaching the people of the world from this distinguished venue. This great honour has been bestowed upon me by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. I salute the spirit of Alfred Nobel and hail all true followers of his…
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Hayathe Ayeva
Forced marriages, early pregnancies and juvenile delinquency, notably in rural areas of Africa, constitute barriers for young people to pursue their education and contribute to the development of their communities. While it is in their families and schools that they should find help, education and support, these spaces are usually congested with taboos, stereotypes and…
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Lena Vann
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Young Defender Lena Vann, a passionate activist from North Carolina A&T University, is dedicated to addressing the intersection of race and menstrual justice. Hailing from an immigrant background, she firmly believes in uplifting others and supporting her community with an open hand. As Miss Freshman at her school, Lena took…
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