Women’s Rights
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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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Addressing the social and racial barriers to health care equity
Tags Share Fortune covers our president Kerry Kennedy’s recent participation at the 2023 Most Powerful Women Summit. Joined by industry experts from Johnson & Johnson and the Susan G. Komen foundation, Kerry and her co-panelists discussed the social and racial barriers to health care equity – and how to address them.
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International Equal Pay Day
Tags Share From the service industry to the C-suite, women face a persistent – and startling – pay disparity compared to their male coworkers, particularly white, male co-workers. September 18 marks International Equal Pay Day, a day designed to build upon the United Nations’ commitment to human rights and against all forms of discrimination, including…
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STTP Speaker Series: From Programming to Philanthropy to Advance Women’s Human Rights
Tags Share Join Zaynab Nawaz, Senior Director of Program and Learning with Women Moving Millions, and student moderator Angelina Pouhe, Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, in a conversation about women’s human rights from programming to philanthropy. We will discuss the current state of women’s and girls’ rights, and the role the philanthropic community…
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