By her early thirties, Doria Shafik was already an accomplished woman with a doctorate in philosophy. Despite her young age, she had published essays and poems in both Arabic and French, competed in a beauty pageant, and founded an organization of Egyptian feminists. Nevertheless, she would go on to do even greater things in the name of Egyptian women’s rights.
Inspiring Thursday: Hedy Lamarr
Born in 1914 and raised in the cultural Jewish quarter of Vienna, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, better known as Hedy Lamarr, was the daughter of a pianist and a bank director with a fascination for technology. Most famous for her career as a glamorous actress, few people know of the great inventions that Lamarr worked on, laying the groundwork for our modern day wireless communication technology.
Inspiring Thursday: Arundhati Roy
Indian novelist and political activist, Arundhati Roy, best known for her novel “The God of Small Things” and for her involvement in human right issues, also had several odd jobs before starting her career as a writer. At one point, she was an actress, film-maker and even an aerobics instructor.
Inspiring Thursday: Pavan Amara
“I decided to start a charity. I didn’t do it for philanthropic reasons or because I wanted to be the next Mother Theresa. It was actually a selfish move – I had no other option, and I did it for my own welfare.”
Inspiring Thursday: Bella Abzug
Bella Savitzky, or “Battling Bella”, was born in 1920 in New-York city from Russian Jewish immigrant parents. Already at an early age, she was fearless, bold and outspoken, and would not let anyone (boys included) beat her in any competition. When a father died, Abzug was aged 13 and she was told that she could not say the mourners´ Kaddish at the synagogue because, as a rite reserved for sons, it was forbidden for women to say it. Her father had no sons and Bella, determined to mourn her father in the way she wanted, went to the synagogue every morning for a year to recite the prayer. In doing so, she courageously defied the tradition of her Jewish community.
Inspiring Thursday: Ilona Zambo
“Bela Osztojkan, who was a Roma leader, called me the first Gypsy feminist for standing up for the rights of Roma women. He did not mean it as a compliment.”
Inspiring Thursday: Marichuy
“We, the indigenous people, say we don’t agree with this system—to be exploited, to have them continue to destroy our communities… It should be the people who give the orders and the government that obeys.” (Marichuy)
Inspiring Thursday: Ninotchka Roska
Referring to herself as a “transnational Filipina”, Ninotchka Roska is a prolific writer, author of eleven books, journalist, as well as a fervent advocate for women´s rights and liberation. She has won several awards, including the American Book Award for Excellence in Literature for her famous book Twice Blessed.
Inspiring Thursday: Lizzie Velasquez
“I am human… of course those things are going to hurt… (but) I’m not going to let those things define me.”
Inspiring Thursday: Nawal El Saadawi
“For me feminism includes everything. It is social justice, political justice, sexual justice… It is the link between medicine, literature, politics, economics, psychology and history. Feminism is all that. You cannot understand the oppression of women without this.”
