Pittsburgh was chosen as the first city to host the 2012 Internation Women of Courage. Last night I attended a reception at Chatham College where 9 women talked of their experiences and why they were chosen. I heard a woman from Sudan talk of her struggles in the refugee camps and being jailed for speaking out looking for international help. A woman from Brazil who was kidnapped, beaten and raped for trying to help the people living in the slums of Rio. A columbian reporter was tortured and raped and now stands up for the over 400,000 women who are abused. In their culture it is a shameful thing that women do not speak of there. She is a rebel for telling her story and receives little support from her own people. These women have been jailed, raped, tortured for asking for basic rights that we take for granted. Can you imagine being jailed for asking to be seperated from your abusive father? Or being jailed for asking for education, voting and driving privileges for women? Below is a list of the amazing women I heard. I was touched by Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih of Sudan. Her passionate plea for international help for the women and children in refugee camps was so compelling. She was so thankful to be heard! These women reminded me how fortunate I am to be here in the U.S. watching my daughters work, drive, study in freedom. We need to remember how precious our freedoms are and protect them with our vote, our pens, our voices.
I thank every one of these amazing women listed below for their stories, their time, and their courage
International Women of Courage visit Pittsburgh read about their visit!
- The Honorable Maryam Durani, Kandahar Provincial Council Member (Afghanistan);
- Major Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, police officer, Rio de Janeiro Military Police (Brazil);
- Zin Mar Aung, political activist and NGO co-founder (Burma);
- Jineth Bedoya Lima, investigative journalist (Colombia);
- Hana Elhebshi, architect and political activist (Libya);
- Aneesa Ahmed, gender-based violence (GBV) activist and former Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs (Maldives);
- Shad Begum, human rights activist and founder/executive director of Anjuman Behbood-e-Khawateen Talah (the Union of Women’s Welfare) (Pakistan);
- Samar Badawi, political activist (Saudi Arabia);
- Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih, human rights activist (Sudan);
- The Honorable Safak Pavey, Member of Parliament (Turkey)
