Category: human rights

activists contraceptive rights feminist human rights philanthropist politics social reform womens rights workers rights

Annie Besant

by Julie

Annie Besant was a trade unionist, socialist, theosophist, women’s rights activist and philanthropist. Besant was a leading socialist and successful public speaker, filling halls across Britain for the National Secular Society. She was a prominent member of the Fabian society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). In 1877, she was prosecuted for publishing a …

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activists anti-FGM human rights

Waris Dirie

by Julie

Waris Dirie is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist in the fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). At 18, Dirie began her career as a model, in 1987 she graced the cover of the Pirelli Calendar and appeared in the James Bond film The Living Daylights. She became one of the first …

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activists human rights LGBTQIA+ politics

Alexya Salvador

by Julie

For #LGBThistorymonth I will be posting an #lgbtq #womaninhistory every day. Today is Alexya Salvador who calls herself the “first transgender shepherd of Latin America” Salvador made history when she held Cuba’s first ever LGBTQ friendly mass in May 2017. She and other trans pastors preached about God’s love and acceptance of the very community …

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activists black history Civil Rights human rights LGBTQIA+

Patrisse Cullors

by Julie

Patrisse Cullors is an artist, organizer, freedom fighter and queer activist. She is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter. Cullors became an activist as a teenager when joining the  Bus Riders Union, a civil rights social movement organization. At the age of 16 she was forced to leave home after she revealed her queer identity to her parents. She formed a …

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activists business human rights workers rights

Safia Minney

by Julie

Safia Minney is a British social entrepreneur and author who founded People Tree, a pioneering sustainable and Fair Trade fashion label.   She began her career in marketing, where she realised that she could use her skills for social good by raising awareness of social and environmental issues. After moving to Japan where she worked for Amnesty International, …

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activists black history human rights politics workers rights

Margaret Ekpo

by Julie

Margaret Ekpo was a Nigerian women’s rights activist, social mobiliser and pioneering female politician in Nigeria’s First Republic. Ekpo was born in 1914 in Creek Town, Cross River State Okoroafor Obiasulor, a native of Agulu-Uzo-Igbo near Awka in Anambra State and Inyang Eyo Aniemewue, who was from the family of King Eyo Honesty II, of …

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activists black history Civil Rights human rights

Ella Baker

by Julie

Ella Baker was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist who worked with the NAACP and co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Baker was born in 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia and grew up in North Carolina. Her grandmother would tell her stories about …

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activists feminist human rights politics women leaders

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti

by Julie

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was a Nigerian teacher, feminist and political leader who was the leading advocate of women’s rights in her country during the first half of the 20th century. Ransome-Kuti was born Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas in 1900 in Abeokuta, Egbaland (now Nigeria). She became the first female student at the Abeokuta Grammar School, …

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human rights workers rights

Syeda Ghulam Fatima

by Julie

Syeda Ghulam Fatima is a Pakistani human and labour rights activist, known for her work in ending bonded labour in brick kilns. She is General Secretary of Lahore-based Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan (BLLF). Fatima is the daughter of a trade-unionist and small-scale railway employee Syed Deedar Hussain. She holds a Masters Degree in Political …

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