International Women of Courage Awards

On March 8, the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, we attended the 2011 International Women of Courage Award ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama presented the awards to 10 extraordinary women from Afghanistan, Belarus, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Hungary, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, and Pakistan. The recipients were honored for their courage and leadership in the fight for social justice, human rights, and the advancement of women. According to First Lady Michelle Obama, “These women are amazing. They are activists. They are truth tellers.”

In her speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “Now, I was struck to learn the other day that our planet that we all share is now host to the largest generation of girls and women every born. There are now more than 850 million girls and young women age 10 to 24. What kind of world will they inherit? What kind of world will their children inherit? How will they lead the next generation? Who will they look to as models? The women in this room all know how to lead by example: Henriette, who is working for good governance in Cameroon: or Jianmei, fighting sexual harassment cases for women in China; Eva, seeking to stop so-called “honor killings” in Jordan; Marisela, who is starting a federal witness protection program so cartels can be prosecuted in Mexico; Maria, insisting on defending women brutalized by domestic abuse even after her own home was set afire in Afghanistan; Agnes, defending the rights of Roma women from a seat in Hungary’s parliament; or Ghulam, insisting that every girl in her rural Pakistani village deserved to be enrolled in school.”

One of the recipients was Roza Otunbayeva, the first women President of Kyrgyzstan, who led a movement to overthrow a dictator and establish a democracy in her country. President Otunbayeva said, “I accept this award on behalf of all women of Kyrgyzstan who struggle from day to day to make their voices heard. This award belongs to those who, despite their condition, rise above and demand respect to their human dignity.” At the reception after the award ceremony, we had a chance to meet President Otunbayeva.

Two honorees, Nasta Palazhanka of Belarus and Yoani Sanchez of Cuba, could not be present for the ceremony because their governments would not allow them to travel. Ms. Sanchez is a young blogger. According to First Lady Michelle Obama, “It wasn’t long before Yoani Sanchez’s blog had caught fire on the Internet and was being downloaded onto computer flash drives and passed from person to person. When it was censored by the state, she continued her blog through what she calls a “citizen network”—a network of people outside of Cuba who helped publish her posts. Her writing is now translated into 15 languages.”

To support women’s economic empowerment, Secretary Clinton announced the establishment of a new partnership with the Goldman Sachs Foundation to provide scholarships for 100 women entrepreneurs over the next two years to help women receive business and management training. The first scholarships will be granted to women from Indonesia and Haiti. This new program will supplement Goldman Sachs' existing 10,000 Women Program, which has already helped more than 3,000 women create jobs and grow their women-run  businesses.

A surprise guest at the ceremony was Julia Gillard, the first woman Prime Minister of Australia. She emphasized that education is the foundation for women’s advancement, “I am absolutely passionate about education because I believe it gives everybody the opportunity to shape their own lives for the future. And wherever I encounter women and girls, I know what can change their lives is the ability to have a great quality education. And I’d like to leave you with one message today, and that message is: Education takes courage as well. It takes moral courage to learn to read. But today I want to say to you that there are women and girls around our world who need physical courage in order to get an education, physical courage in order to learn to read. I believe it is a great symbol of hope that there are women now who are able to learn to read in countries where that basic right was denied to them.”--by Christina Graubert '13 and Kate Samore '13