Activism Archives - Page 158 of 161

Dr Dian Fossey

Dr Dian Fossey was one of the world’s leading experts on primatology (the study of primates) and spent 18 years in African mountain forests studying gorillas. Fossey conducted the majority of her zoological research in the Congo jungle and Rwandan forests. In addition to anti-poaching activism, she pioneered scientific discoveries about gorilla societal structure. Her best-selling book, Gorillas In The Mist, was later adapted into a film. Her 1985 murder remains unsolved. She also reportedly tortured her enemies, kidnapped their children, and killed their livestock, along with lesser retaliatory acts. She was also known to be racist to the local Rwandans.

Sediqeh Dowlatabadi

Feminist activist and journalist Sediqeh Dowlatabadi was a pioneering figures in the Persian women’s movement who believed in the advancement of women through education.

Abbey Lincoln

Jazz singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist Anna Marie Wooldridge, known professionally as Abbey Lincoln, made a career of performing both beloved standards and her own original material. Her lyrics often referenced aspects of the American Civil Rights Movement and, later in her career, more philosophical themes.
Her 1957 debut album, Abbey Lincoln’s Affair – A Story of a Girl in Love, was followed by a trio of albums for Riverside Records (1957-1959). In 1960 she sang on the landmark civil rights-focused recording, We Insist! After a tour of Africa in the mid-1970s, she adopted the name Aminata Moseka.
Although she only released a few records during the 1980s, she fulfilled a 10-album contract with Verve Records from the 1990s until her death in 2010, releasing some of her most highly regarded work in her 60s and 70s. In 2003, Lincoln received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award.
She was also an actor who appeared in television shows and movies such as The Girl Can’t Help It and Gentleman Prefer Blondes. She co-starred in the independent film Nothing But a Man (1964), an independent film written and directed by Michael Roemer. She recieved a Golden Globe nomination for her her co-starring role in For Love of Ivy (1968). Her television work included appearing in Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness, one of 10 episodes of individual dramas written, produced and performed by African-Americans, “On Being Black” produced in 1969 for WGBH-TV Boston.

Pritilata Waddedar

Pritilata Waddedar was a Bengali revolutionary nationalist who was influential in the Indian independence movement.She graduated from Bethune College in Kolkata with a degree in philosophy with distinction and became a teacher.
Pritilata joined a revolutionary group headed by Surya Sen and is known for leading 15 revolutionaries in the 1932 armed attack on the Pahartali European Club, during which one person was killed and 11 injured. The revolutionaries set the club on fire and were later caught by British police. To avoid arrest, Pritilata committed suicide by cyanide poisoning.

Sheema Kalbasi

Sheema Kalbasi is an Iranian American poet, writer, filmmaker and activist for women’s rights, minorities’ rights, children’s rights, human rights and refugees’ rights. Her work discusses these topics as well as other women’s issues, war, refugees, Sharia Law and freedom of expression. In additon to her artistic work, Sheema taught refugee children and worked for the UNHCR and the Center for Refugees in Pakistan, and UNA Denmark. Her poems have been anthologized and translated into more than 20 languages.

Ofelia Domínguez Navarro

Ofelia Domínguez Navarro was a Cuban writer, teacher, lawyer, feminist and activist who fought for the rights of women and illegitimate children.

Thung Sin Nio

Betsy Thung Sin Nio was an Indonesian-Dutch women’s rights activist, medical doctor, economist and politician. As the daughter of a wealthy and progressive Peranakan family of the Cabang Atas gentry in Batavia, she was encouraged to pursue education, which was unusual for Indonesian women at the time. After completing high school, she earned her qualifications as a bookkeeper, but became a teacher instead because social norms prevented women from doing office work. In 1924 Thung enrolled at the Netherlands School of Business in Rotterdam to study economics, then went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics. She enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in 1932 to pursue her medical studies.
During that time, Thung met Dutch physician and suffragist Aletta Jacobs, who encouraged her to become involved in the Dutch women’s movement and the Association for Women’s Interests and Equal Citizenship. Thung became an activist for improving the socio-economic and civil status of women, writing articles for feminist journals in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. After completing her medical degree in 1938, Thung returned to Batavia and opened a medical practice focusing on the health of women and children. She continued her feminist activism and fought for women’s suffrage; when the government proposed that only European women be given the rights to vote and stand in elections, Thung successfully campaigned for voting rights for educated women regardless of their race.
During World War II, she maintained her private practice, volunteered at a local public hospital and opened a private hospital to treat European patients. After the war ended, she became a medical officer for the Jakarta school system and entered local politics. She was elected as the first woman member of the Municipal Council of Jakarta in 1949, representing the Persatuan Tionghoa. From 1949 to 1965, she traveled abroad on numerous occasions on behalf of her country, including serving as a translator for trade delegations and as an economist on fact-finding missions to Russia and China. Following Indonesia’s 1965 coup d’état and the shift away from communism, she was released from government work. In 1968, when assimilationist policies were introduced to force Chinese citizens to take Indonesian names, Thung permanently immigrated to the Netherlands, where she continued to work as a physician.

Aasta Hansteen

In her younger days, Norwegian feminist Aasta Hansteen earned her living as a portrait painter in Kristiania (modern-day Oslo)’ she was in demand as the city’s only portrait artist. Her most famous painting is possibly her portrait of her father, which is on permanent exhibit at the National Gallery of Norway. Associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting, she exhibited her work at the 1855 World’s Fair in Paris. Well known in the Oslo’s intellectual circles, Hansteen inspired characters in dramas by Ibsen and Gunnar Heiberg. Her writings advocating for the rights of women, her opposition to religious authority, and her provocative behavior—she often appeared fpr public speaking engagements wearing men’s boots and brandishing a whip in a symbolic performance of the oppressor—led to such harassment that in 1880 she emigrated to the United States. Together with her foster daughter Theodora Nielsen, she sailed from Christiania on April 9, 1880. In Boston, she met leading feminists of the day, including Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and Mary Livermore, and was deeply affected by the relative freedom of women in America. By 1889, when she returned to Norway, the feminist movement there was firmly established, and Hansteen was embraced as one of its pioneers. In 1889, she returned to Norway, joined the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights (Norsk Kvinnesaksforening) and became an active contributor in the press on women’s rights
She also studied linguistics, with an interest in Norwegian dialects. In 1862 she published anonymously a small book written in Nynorsk, becoming the first woman to publish in the language.

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander was the first African-American to receive a doctorate in economics in the United States (1921), and the first woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Selina Seixas Solomons

Selina Seixas Solomons dedicated her life to women’s suffrage and was a key player in California granting women the right to vote in 1911, with the state’s eighth amendment passing by only a 2% margin. California became the sixth state in the United States to grant the vote to women.
In 1896, California failed to pass women’s suffrage – in part, Solomons believed, due to the number of elite suffragists who were not connecting with middle and lower-class voters. In 1910, she founded the Votes for Women Club in downtown San Francisco specifically for working class women like shop girls and clerks. At the club, meals were served and the women were educated on the suffrage movement, with lectures and forums advocating the right to vote and a reading room with literature about the suffrage movement. The clubwomen joined Solomons in canvassing amongst the working-class population.
“We had kept back our womanish tears. Now we gave free rein to our emotions in both manly and womanly fashion, with handshaking and back slapping as well as hugging and kissing one another. October 10, 1911 proved to be the greatest day in my life,” she said
In 1912, Solomons published How We Won the Vote in California: a true story of the campaign of 1911, which outlined their successful strategies, from lobbying to fundraising efforts.