Ifrah Ahmed is a Somali anti-FGM campaigner and social activist. She was hugely influential in the passing of anti-FGM legislation in Ireland and is the founder of the United Youth of Ireland and the Ifrah Foundation. Ahmed was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. At the age of 8 she underwent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), along with …
Aki Kurose was a Seattle teacher, peace and social activist who devoted her life to advocating for the neglected, the disadvantaged and children. She helped to establish Seattle’s Head Start program to bring comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. Kurose was born in 1925 in …
Yuri Kochiyama was a Japanese American political activist and lifelong champion of civil rights for Black, Latino, Native American and Asian-American communities. Kochiyama was born in 1921 in San Pedro, California to Japanese immigrant parents Seiichi Nakahara and Tsuyako Nakahara. Kochiyama grew up in a predominantly white neighbourhood and became the first female student body …
Adrienne Rich was an American poet, essayist and feminist called “one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century.” She is credited with bringing “the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse.” Rich was born in 1929 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father, Arnold …
Florynce Kennedy was an American lawyer, activist, civil rights advocate, lecturer and one of the pioneers of second-wave feminism. Kennedy was born in 1916 in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up in a mostly white neighbourhood, and as a young child was arrested as the police didn’t believe she lived in the neighbourhood. On one occasion, …
Aletta H. Jacobs was the first woman to officially attend a Dutch University and the first female physician in the Netherlands. She was also a women’s suffrage activist and inventor. Jacobs was born in 1854 in Sappemeer, Netherlands to Abraham Jacobs, a physician and Anna de Jongh. From an early age, Jacobs would accompany her …
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and human-rights activist who founded the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. She was the first female judge in Iran, and the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Ebadi was born in 1947 in Hamadan, Iran. A year later, her family …
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a Guatemalan Indigenous rights activist who became the first indigenous person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. Menchú was born in 1959 in Laj Chimel, Quiché, Guatemala Her family were of K’iche descent, and lived in poverty as a result of their Mayan heritage, as, like many other countries …
Vilma Espín was a Cuban revolutionary, feminist, and chemical engineer. She was known as “Cuba’s First Lady” and was the most politically powerful woman in the country. Espín was born in 1930 in Santiago, Cuba to Margarita Guillois and Jose Espín, the chief accountant and executive assistant to the CEO of the Bacardi rum company. …
Shahla Sherkat is a journalist, prominent Persian feminist author, and one of the pioneers of the Women’s rights movement in Iran. Sherkat was born in 1956 in Isfahan, Iran. When she was 11, her family moved to Tehran. After finishing school, Sherkat continued her education at Tehran University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in …