Who is on the BBC's list of 100 inspiring and influential women this year?
As the civil war in Yemen has grown more violent this year, lawyer Maeen Al-Obaidi continues to be focused on peace building in the besieged city of Taiz. She has taken on the role of a mediator, facilitating prisoner exchanges between conflicting groups. While she is not always successful getting fighters back to their families alive, she tries to make sure the bodies of those deceased are returned.
As Pope Francis states, ‘it is a duty of justice to fight against all discrimination and violence’ on women… Together, we need to support in any way to involve more women in leadership positions at all levels.A renowned Russian journalist, Taisia Bekbulatova founded the independent media outlet Holod in 2019. The organisation has reported extensively on the war in Ukraine, as well as publishing stories about inequality, violence, and women's rights.
Her work covers language accessibility in documents concerning political decisions, and inclusion in political parties and electoral events. Castro was part of a Mexican delegation to the United Nations which presented a report into disability rights, and is a representative for the global network Inclusion International.
She is also behind the first African feminist mobile app for election data analysis. Faborode currently serves in the Leadership Council of The Democracy and Culture Foundation, which identifies new ways to improve democratic processes.The first black trans woman ever elected to a seat in the National Congress of Brazil. Erika Hilton is an activist who campaigns against racism, and for LGBTQ+ and human rights.
Globally, digital sex crimes threaten women's rights and we need to solve this problem in solidarity.For six years under Taliban rule, Zahra Joya became ‘Mohammad’ and dressed as a boy to attend school. When US-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 she returned to school as Zahra. She started working as a journalist in 2011 and was often the only female reporter in the newsroom.
We need to tackle the attitudes that create an environment in which abuse remains commonplace. That means all of us directly and consistently challenging the culture of male entitlement, sexism, and misogyny.Appointed this year as the first female judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Ayesha A. Malik has authored judgements protecting the rights of women. This includes her landmark judgement which banned the so-called two-finger test of rape victims.
Mottley is known for being outspoken about climate change. At COP27 she criticised wealthy nations for failing to tackle the climate crisis, warning there could be a billion climate refugees by 2050 if no action is taken.Law student Sepideh Qoliyan was sentenced to five years in prison for supporting workers’ rights in Khuzestan province, in south-west Iran.
Her production team brings together self-taught voice and digital artists from Eritrea, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to create digital content. The videos are accessed by Tigrinya-speaking parents and their children from Eritrea and Ethiopia. Tedros also organised the first Beles Bubu Kids Festival for refugees in Kampala, Uganda.Dharma Master Cheng Yen is seen as one of the most influential figures in the development of modern Taiwanese Buddhism.
Women have taken on even more responsibilities than in peacetime… A woman who has experienced this will never take a step back. And I am sure that our inner confidence will grow.In 2012, Dima Aktaa’s home in Syria was bombed. She lost her leg and the ability to do one of her favourite things - run. Approximately 28% of Syrians have a disability, nearly double the global average, according to UN data. Ten years later, Aktaa is in the UK, training to compete in the 2024 Paralympics.
I'm a woman that has had a hard past, that could be judged for a lot of things and could have my power dismantled very easily, but it has been through the support of other women that I am here.Spanish artistic swimmer Ona Carbonell campaigns to normalise perceptions of being both a mother and an elite athlete. A three-time Olympian, she has collected more than 30 major medals, including Olympic silver and bronze.
Her Hollywood acting credits include Isn't It Romantic and The Matrix Resurrections. She has established her own production company, making films in India. Chopra is also a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, campaigning for children’s rights and education for girls. The 28-year-old, who started playing tennis when she was just three, made it to number two in the Women’s Tennis Association ranking - the highest position ever held by an African or Arab, whether male or female. Jabeur has won three career singles titles, and has been credited with inspiring a new generation of players.When her parents couldn’t fulfil a demand for more dowry in December 2000, Sneha Jawale’s husband set her on fire with kerosene. The family didn’t file a police complaint.
Many stereotypes remain for women in society. Support needs to come from the home, as well as from society, for meaningful and lasting change to happen.Designing aesthetically pleasing garments for the elderly and for differently abled bodies is a passion for Kadri Keung. She started adaptive fashion brand RHYS with her mother Ophelia Keung in 2018, inspired by caring for Kadri’s grandmother and realising that garments for the elderly often lack style and functionality.
She became a viral sensation at Coachella festival this year by challenging Thai stereotypes and the government, as well as eating mango sticky rice onstage, a traditional Thai dessert. Last year she faced defamation charges for criticising the Thai government's Covid-19 response. As a result, the hashtag #SaveMilli trended.Very few performers gain EGOT status – a term for the superlative achievement of winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award – but Rita Moreno is one of them.
The world has seen significant progress in the fight for women's access to education and financial independence. However, domestic violence is still a big issue in many countries.At the Asian Championships that took place in South Korea in October, Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi competed without a headscarf, amid protests against the mandatory hijab in her home country. She came fourth in the championships, but gained popularity among Iranian protesters.
A respected cultural leader and artist, Scales is a Pitjantjatjara woman from Pipalyatjara in the far west of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, in remote South Australia. She is the second woman to hold the position of APY chairperson, and is a spokesperson for the APY Art Centre Collective, a group of indigenous-owned cultural enterprises.“Sally is a creator of both wonderful art and human understanding.
Women have always negotiated their spaces. There has been marked progress for them in all spheres of life, even if unevenly across cultures and classes.St Petersburg artist Alexandra Skochilenko was detained for replacing supermarket price tags with messages about the war in Ukraine, including information on the potential number of casualties in the Mariupol theatre airstrike carried out by Russian forces.
We are now more aware of the historical oppression of women and the need to remedy it, but we fail to recognise how racism deepens these oppressions on Afro and indigenous people.A child of the Algerian diaspora, Esraa Warda is a cultural warrior who has taken traditional Algerian dance from the living room to the classroom.
In customary law, the sanction of “washing the village” establishes that perpetrators who are thought to have polluted traditional values should pay a fine. This rule is also applied to victims. Because of her campaigning, Bambari is often the first person contacted by the police when sexual violence is reported. She has dealt with several cases this year.
She is a patron of Positive About Down and founding officer of the National Down Syndrome Policy Group. Her book, I’m Just Heidi, was published in August. She is one of the Iranian Complainant Mothers, a group seeking justice for their children’s killings. Holding Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, personally responsible for her son’s death, she was one of the signatories of a letter in 2019, calling for his resignation. During this year’s protests, following the death of Mahsa Amini, Eshghi removed her headscarf in solidarity with protesters.Armed men took Ceci Flores’ 21-year-old son Alejandro in 2015.
Recently Goba has managed the integration process of LGBTQ+ people who arrived in the UK from Afghanistan. She is one of the founding members of UK Black Pride and current chair of their board of trustees.Dentist Gehad Hamdy is also the founder and manager of Speak Up, an Egyptian feminist initiative that uses its social media platform to shine a spotlight on the perpetrators of gender-based violence and sexual harassment.
Speaking to BBC Persian, Layli said she would"fight for people like Hadis Najafi and Mahsa Amini". The Iranian regime, she said,"do not scare us with the threat of death. We have hope for Iran’s freedom."Sold off to become a ‘fifth wife’ aged 12, Hadizatou Mani was enslaved under the wahaya practice, which involves an influential man taking an unofficial wife to serve his four legal wives.
She managed to film her reactions to the arrest and posted it online. Paryani’s viral video brought attention to female activists who were disappearing. She spent three weeks in custody before being set free. She is now living in Germany and, in solidarity with the women of Iran, she burnt her headscarf, a move that was seen as controversial by many Afghan women.
Sachuk is passionate about empowering girls and women with disabilities to participate in decision making. She participates in the Obama Foundation’s Leader Europe program, was laureate of the National Human Rights Award 2020, and is a candidate for Ukraine on the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This year we wanted to recognise the role women have played in the protests, fighting for their freedoms and against the compulsory hijab. Known as HeLa cells, they have been used in medical research ever since, but the family did not know for decades. Now part of the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, Baptiste is also a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for cervical cancer elimination.Conservationist Niloufar Bayani was one of several environmentalists detained in Iran in 2018 after using cameras to track endangered species.
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