Anissa Rawda Najjar was a Lebanese feminist and women’s rights activist, who co-founded the Village Welfare Society (Jam`iyat In`ash Al-Qarya) with Evelyne Bustros in 1953, to advance literacy and economic opportunities for rural women in Lebanon.
Gertrud Johanna Woker was a Swiss suffragist, biochemist, toxicologist and peace activist.
Eulalie Nibizi is a Burundian trade unionist and human rights activist.
Radha Poonoosamy was a Mauritian politician who served as the country’s first female cabinet minister and was a member of the executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC). She was also an activist, campaigning for women’s rights and against apartheid and anti-Indian discrimination in her home country of South Africa. She continued her activism after moving to Mauritius in 1952, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1975. She was appointed the inaugural minister in charge of the newly formed Ministry of Women’s Affairs, a role in which she helped passed laws against gender discrimination.
Íngrid Betancourt Pulecio is a Colombian politician, former senator and anti-corruption activist, particularly political corruption.
Teresa Hsu Chih was a Singaporean charity worker, nicknamed “Singapore’s Mother Teresa” for her lifelong dedication to helping the elderly sick and impoverished. A retired nurse, she founded non-profit charities Heart to Heart Service and the Home for the Aged Sick, one of the first of its kind in Singapore.
Model, author, actor and activist Waris Dirie worked for the United Nations from 1997 to 2003 as a Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. She had written several books on the subject, and in 2002 launched her own non-profit, the Desert Flower Foundation, which raises money to increase awareness about FGM and to help those affected.
Wided Bouchamaoui is a Tunisian businesswoman who has been the leader of the employers union Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA) since 2011. UTICA was one of the four organisations to form the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, whose aim was to secure a transition to democracy. The Quartet won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.
Qian Xiuling was a Chinese-Belgian scientist who saved nearly 100 lives during World War II.
Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi is a Palestinian politician, activist and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process, starting with the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991.