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 …
Farrokhroo Parsa was an Iranian physician, educator and parliamentarian. She served as Minister of Education of Iran during the Pahlavi Dynasty and was the first female cabinet minister of an Iranian government. Parsa was born in 1922 in Qom, Iran. Her mother, Fakhr’e Afagh Parsa was the editor of the women’s magazine, Jahan’e Zan (The …
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 …
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 …
Begum Rokeya was a leading Muslim feminist writer and social worker in undivided Bengal during the early 20th century. She fought for gender equality and established the first school for Muslim girls, which still exists today. Rokeya was born in 1880 in Bangladesh during British colonial rule. Her family were orthodox Muslims, and so women …
Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator and activist known as “The First Lady of The Struggle” due of her commitment to gain better lives for African Americans. She founded the National Council of Negro Women and served as president of the National Association of Colored Women. Bethune was born Mary Jane McLeod in 1875 near …
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani Children’s Activist and Women’s Rights Activist. She is the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. Yousafzai became an advocate for the education of girls as a child after the Taliban took control and tried to ban girls from education, going so far as to attack girls’ schools in Swat. She began speaking …