Each year, the Feminist Majority Foundation honors extraordinary people who have overcome great obstacles, adversity, and threats to their own lives and well-being to expose global women's rights injustices and fight for women's rights worldwide. Last Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of attending the 5th Annual Global Women's Rights Awards.
Amidst the sold out ballroom, the almost rowdy live auction hosted by Jay Leno, and the bustling Ms. Obama poster and Afghan craft sales, I couldn't help but be in awe of the fact that I was mingling with truly incredible, beyond inspirational, groundbreaking, unrelenting feminist honorees.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN's Chief International Correspondent, took a stand when no one else would and exposed the horrendous conditions the Taliban was, and continues to inflict upon women and girls in Afghanistan. Afghan women and girls lack access to the most basic human rights: to leave the home, earn money, visit the doctor, and go to school without facing atrocious cruelties such as acid attacks. The situation for Afghan women and girls is not improving but with the help of brave women like Christiane Amanpour and yourself, we can make sure the international eye is watching the plight of Afghan women and girls. Sign online petitions and help raise money to train an Afghan midwife and reduce maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan.
Dr. Neal Baer (Executive Producer) and Mariska Hargitay (as Detective Olivia Benson) have brought hard-hitting women's issues to primetime television through Law & Order: Special Victims' Unit for over eight seasons. Through bringing the all too real issues of hate crimes, sexual assault, domestic violence and the backlog of rape kits in Los Angeles, among many, to mainstream media, Baer and Hargitay have helped raise awareness, raise outrage, and have helped prompt viewers, activists and lawmakers to fight against these all too prevalent occurrences.
Last but not least, the remarkable and inspriring team behind the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, was honored. Produced by Abigail Disney and directed by Gini Reticker, Pray the Devil Back to Hell tells the story of Leymah Gbowee and the thousands of other Liberian women who organized peacefully to end a gruesome civil war and elect the first female head of state. The story is one of peaceful activism, grassroots organizing and powerful feminism at its finest. Disney and Reticker, through the production of this film, have helped ensure that the story of how women have shaped a country's history does not go unrecognized or rewritten through a patriarchal lens. Spread the inspirational story of the Liberian women and celebrate women's collective successes by hosting a screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell on your campus.
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