Our fifth edition of the 2023 Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women leaders who have been leading change in South Asia. This edition features the remarkable stories of Romina Khurshid Alam, Pampha Bhusal, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Atishi Marlena. These stories, contributed by our dedicated volunteers Vasundhra and Ira, are a testament to women's leadership strength and resilience. Romina Khurshid Alam Former Member of Parliament, Pakistan As the convener of the Pakistan Parliamentary Task Force on SDGs, Ms Alam was a frontrunner in establishing the country’s first digitise ..read more

Our fourth edition of the 2023 Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women leaders who have been leading change in South Asia. This edition features the remarkable stories of Naheed Farid, Dr Aisha Ghaus, Sita Gurung, Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhary and Rohini Kumar Wijerathna. These stories, contributed by our dedicated volunteers Vasundhra, Ishani, and Saji, are a testament to women's leadership strength and resilience. Naheed Farid Former Minister in Parliament of Afghanistan- Youngest minister, in-exile Naheed is the youngest former elected parliamentarian of Afghanistan. She ..read more

Our third edition of the 2023 Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women political leaders from South Asia who have been leading efforts on economic empowerment. In this edition, we feature the remarkable stories of Nazifa Bek, Hina Rabbani Khar, and Dr. Aishath. These stories, contributed by our dedicated volunteers Vasundhra, Ishani, and Vibhuti, are a testament to the strength and resilience of women in leadership. Nazifa Bek Former Member of Parliament, Afghanistan (In exile in Greece) Bek is amongst the 40% of Afghanistan’s former female MPs, standing in firm opposition ..read more

Our second edition of the 2023 Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women political leaders from South Asia who have been leading efforts on political empowerment. Stories of Naheed Farid, Shukria Barakzai, Dr Nafisa Shah, Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe, Binda Pandey, Late Syeda Sajeda Chowdhary and Rozaina Adam covered in this edition have been contributed by volunteers Vasundhra, Ishani, Tapasya and Nirmalya. Naheed Farid Former Member of Parliament and Former Chairperson of Parliament’s Women’s Affairs Commission, Afghanistan Naheed, a prominent Afghan politician and women rights ..read more

Our first edition of this year's Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women political leaders from South Asia who have been leading efforts on sustainability. Stories of Marriyum Aurangzeb, Uma Regmi, Ajantha Perera and Reena Gupta covered in this edition have been contributed by volunteers Ira, Vatsla, Eeshna and Tapasya. Marriyum Aurangzeb Former MNA and Federal Minister, Pakistan As former Minister in Pakistan, Marriyum Aurangzeb has led Pakistan’s effort on sustainability and the 5-E framework, which emphasises greatly on energy and the environment. By launching the “Plan ..read more

Women in India remain underrepresented in organised politics, be it as party workers, local leaders, elected representatives, or members of decision-making bodies in parties. In women’s participation in societies, one of the key issues is the ‘continuum of violence’ as discussed by Krause on conflict and post-conflict situations and this violence continuously seeps from public spaces to private spaces and vice versa. This could be in workplaces, public spaces, and homes, apart from systemic injustices. In this essay, we specifically focus on one such issue that has remained understudied so fa ..read more

Our penultimate edition of this year’s Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women political leaders from Maldives. Aneesa Ahmed Former Minister and MP Aneesa Ahmed received the prestigious “International Woman of Courage” for her work against gender-based violence. As a Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs, she raised the issue of domestic violence, a taboo subject at that time. After her stint with the government, she founded an NGO - “Hope for Women”, that supports women empowerment efforts and sensitises government officials, students and other community workers about gender ..read more

Our third edition of this year’s Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women political leaders from Sri Lanka. Through this series, we are committed to move beyond victimising women in politics or seeing them as beneficiaries of reservation and rethink their role as change-makers and leaders from the grassroots to the top. Hirunika Premachandra Former Member of Parliament Hirunika is the National Organizer of the Samagi Vanitha Balawegaya, SJB’s women’s wing. She was instrumental in the 2022 people’s protests, courageously leading marches and protests by mobilising youth and w ..read more

Our second edition of this year’s Beyond Victims Series brings you stories of inspiring women political leaders from Bhutan. Through this series, we are committed to move beyond victimising women in politics or seeing them as beneficiaries of reservation and rethink their role as change-makers and leaders from the grassroots to the top. From a grassroots leader who entered politics after an extensive stint with nonprofits to the country’s first woman in the cabinet. Read about them and others below. Dorji Choden Former Minister Photo Source : Gaurdain Dorji Choden became Bhutan's first democr ..read more

We are excited to present this year's Beyond Victims Series. Through this series, we are committed to move beyond victimising women in politics or seeing them as beneficiaries of reservation and rethink their role as change-makers and leaders from the grassroots to the top. This year’s series will span eight editions, covering stories of inspiring women’s political leadership across South Asia. This is our first edition on women political leaders in India. From a grassroots leader mobilising an entire village to adopt preventive health vaccination to a tribal woman becoming the President of In ..read more