Women have been instrumental to the growth and development of homes, furthering into community and nations – from how to make a bed, to cooking meals, to fighting wars and building monuments. Their input has gone on to make room for them in high positions of authority, earning their spots accordingly amongst the powerful as well as influential. These women have gone on to be an inspiration to other women and young girls, telling them through their stories that it is possible to make it no matter life’s circumstances. Here are a number of them we would like to look at today as part of the celebration of the International Women’s Day:
- Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian economist and politician and was the former president (24th) of Liberia from 2006 to 2018; duly elected under democratic rule and making her the first female to occupy this office, and the first woman to be appointed as head of state of an African country. She is also a Nobel Peace prize winner for her efforts in activism and furthering women’s rights, alongside two other women recipients Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman (2011). She is of Gola and German heritage, with her father being the first indeginous Liberian to sit in the national legislature. She earned her degree in economics and business administration in 1971 to which she moved back to Liberia to begin her journey in government service. She won her 2017 Ibrahim Prize in Achievement for African Leadership in 2018, for her efforts in restoring the country after its series of conflicts and other related events that brought devastation on them.
Photo of Meaza Ashanafi. Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons.
- Meaza Ashenafi: Meaza Ashenafi Mengistu is an Ethiopian lawyer and the president of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia, making her the first female chief justice of the Federal Supreme court; the first woman to be appointed to this office. She is the co-founder of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers’ Association (EWLA), and the founder of the women’s bank Enat Bank. Her vision to create an entity to protect and enact women’s rights started with the Ethiopian Lawyer Association in 1995 which she formed alongside Atsedewoyin Tsekle and other women lawyers, after her contributions to human rights with years spent in related committees and associations. The association’s mission is to promote and protect all women’s rights from social to legal under the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The critical aspects that were tackled by the association were on sexual abuse and sexual harrassment, since neither were considered crimes in Ethiopia. Her mission for the co-founding of the first women’s bank, Enat Bank, was to provide financial support for the country’s women after noticing there was not really any available. This bank is owned by female-majority shareholders.
Photo of “Emi” Mahmoud. Photo credit: unhcr.org
- Emtithal Mahmoud: Emtithal “Emi” Mahmoud is a Sudanese-American slam poet and activist and a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. She moved to the United States of America early on and has used her talents to create awareness of refugee camps. Her themes have been on refugees, islamophobia and racial discrimination. Since her graduation from the University of Yale in 2016, she has been involved with the UN Refugee Agency on works such as “How Am I Celebrate?”, “Boy in the Sand”, “Head Over Heels” and “A Procession of Misfits” – all poems that have moved audiences and received ovations from all over. Emi has also been on frontline duty with the UNHCR in Jordan, Uganda and Lesvos, Greece for refugees who made it there and set up camp. Her visit to the Syrian refugees who had crossed over to Turkey is what inspired her to write the poem “Bird Watching On Lesvos Island”, and she performed it at the UNHCR Nansen’s Refugee Award ceremony in 2016.
She has been involved with select Muslim groups for a private roundtable with former President Barack Obama, and gone on to cabinet meetings to advise on racial discrimination and islamaphobia. She has gone to represent UNHCR in high profile events and performed her poetry as well in such affiliate spaces and music festivals (Google Zeitgeist, Sziget music festival in Hungary, The Youth Strategy 2030 launch at the UN General Assembly,World Economic Forum, etc), with her latest poem “Di Baladna” (meaning “Our World”) on the devastating impacts of climate changes on refugees, inspired by visits and consultations with refugees in Bangladesh, Jordan and Cameroon. The poem would go on to be published on Reuters, as she also went on to represent on panels such as OneUNevent and the New York Climate Hub.
