Graça Machel Mozambique
Souhayr Belhassen Tunisia
Bineta Diop Senegal
She is a gender and peace activist. The founder of Femmes Africa Solidarité, Diop’s activism and campaigning focuses on women-led
peace building in the most
fragile states.
It is not because she is married to the world’s most esteemed statesman that she is featured here, for Graça Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, wields her own political and social influence at a global level, particularly on the issues of education and children’s rights. Among other high-profile continental and worldwide duties, Graça currently sits on the influential Africa Progress Panel along with former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.
The 53-year-old former journalist is a seasoned human rights campaigner who long campaigned against the Ben Ali regime. She is today president of the influential NGO, the International Federation for Human Rights (FDIH) and continues to champion freedom of expression, freedom of association and all other universal rights across the world. She was recently awarded the Takreem Arab Woman of the Year award in Qatar.
Helen Zille South Africa
Ory Okolloh Kenya
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Somalia
The leader of South Africa’s main opposition party – the Democratic Alliance – is increasingly broadening her influence as a vocal critic of the ruling ANC’s policies. Zille made a name for herself as a political journalist and leading anti-apartheid critic working for the Rand Daily Mail. She has become one of the most powerful women in South Africa. Zille is succeeding in moving her party away from the image of a “political home of South Africa’s white liberals” to one that appeals to a broader audience.
A social activist, lawyer and blogger she currently holds the position of policy manager for Africa with Google. During and after the 2007 Kenyan election violence, Okolloh established a website called Ushahidi, meaning “witness” in Swahili. The popular website recorded eyewitness reports of the violence using text messages and Google Maps. The technology has since been adapted for other purposes (including monitoring elections and tracking pharmaceutical availability).
She is most noted for writing the script and providing the voice-over for Submission, the film produced by the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, which criticised the treatment of women in Islamic societies. He was later murdered by an Islamic fundamentalist who also threatened Ali’s life, a threat she lives with in exile in America today. A former MP in the Netherlands, she has also set up her own foundation (AHA) to fight abuses of women’s rights by militant Islamists.
New African June 2011 | 15
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