A00020 - Shirin Aliabadi, Iranian Artist Who Focused on Modern Iranian Women

Aliabadi, Shirin

Shirin Aliabadi (b. March 10, 1973, Tehran, Iran – d. October 1, 2018, Tehran, Iran) was an Iranian contemporary visual artist.

Aliabadi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1973. She studied art history and archaeology at the University of Paris. 

Aliabadi was married to the artist Farhad Moshiri.  She was represented by The Third Line gallery in Dubai.

Aliabadi died on October 1, 2018, from cancer, in Tehran, Iran.

Aliabadi's art, which includes photographs and drawings, explores the competing effects on young urban Iranian women of traditional values, religious restrictions and globalized western culture. Her work appeared in solo exhibitions in Dubai, Tehran, London, Switzerland and Denmark and in group exhibitions at the Institut des cultures d'Islam in Paris, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, at Frieze New York, at the Chelsea Art Museum, and in Monaco, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Italy, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.

Her work is held in the collections of Deutsche Bank AG in Gerrnany, the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and the Farjam Collection in Dubai.

A00019 - Maya Jribi, Tunisian Fighter for Democracy

Maya Jribi, Tunisian Fighter for Democracy, Is Dead at 58

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Maya Jribi, the first female leader of a political party in Tunisia, at a meeting of the country’s newly elected constituent assembly, the body in charge of devising a new constitution, in Tunis in December 2011.CreditFethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Lilia Blaise

• June 12, 2018

TUNIS — Maya Jribi, the first female leader of a political party in Tunisia and a tenacious supporter of democracy under the country’s dictators well before the Arab Spring, died on May 19 at her home in a suburb of Tunis. She was 58.

The cause was colon cancer, her sister Najla Jribi said.

Ms. Jribi was an opposition figure during the long autocratic regimes of both Habib Bourguiba and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown in early 2011 in an upheaval that began the wave of uprisings across the Middle East known as the Arab Spring.

That same year, after the revolution, she was sent to parliament in the nation’s first democratic election, which brought to power the once-suppressed Islamist party, Ennahda. There she became a strong secular voice, leading protests against efforts to enshrine Islamic law in the new constitution and took part in the parliamentary debate that led to its adoption in 2014.

The efforts of secular voices were fairly successful: The constitution guarantees freedom of religion and draws a line between politics and civil society.

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Ms. Jribi became widely known throughout Tunisia and abroad. Thousands of people, including political leaders from across the spectrum, turned out for her funeral on May 20.

Ms. Jribi was nicknamed Maya the Bee for her seeming ability to be everywhere at once, traveling constantly to demonstrations or meetings in her small green Peugeot. “She was always busy with the party, going to a place a day, campaigning, protesting another day for freedoms,” said Safia Mestiri, a longtime friend.

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Maya Jribi was born on Jan. 29, 1960, in Bou Arada, about 60 miles southwest of Tunis. Her father worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, and her mother was a homemaker.

“Our parents taught us rigor,” Ms. Jribi once said, “and to never think something is due for us, to always deserve what we wanted.”

When she was still a child, her family moved to Radès, a suburb of Tunis.

Ms. Jribi studied biology and geology at the University of Sfax, on the eastern coast. There she became politically active, joining the student union and the Tunisian League of Human Rights.

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Several years after graduating, Ms. Jribi began working for opposition newspapers, and in 1983, with Ahmed Najib Chebbi, she helped establish the secularist Progressive Socialist Rally, which was soon renamed the Progressive Democratic Party.

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Ms. Jribi at a 2011 news conference in Tunis at which she announced her candidacy for the constituent assembly.CreditFethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Bourguiba had held power for a quarter-century and was opening the door a bit to other parties. But it took five years for the Progressive Democratic Party to gain legal recognition. The Democratic Constitutional Rally party — led by Mr. Ben Ali, Mr. Bourguiba’s successor — won 80.6 percent of the vote in 1989, prompting allegations that the vote had been marred by fraud. The Progressive Democrats boycotted subsequent elections.

In 2005, Mr. Chebbi went on a hunger strike with eight representatives of other parties to protest government pressure on journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates. The hunger strike helped unite a fragmented opposition.

Ms. Jribi took over as party leader in 2006. Soon afterward the regime closed her party’s offices, and she joined another hunger strike, refusing food for 33 days. The experience left her in poor health for years.

“The doctor came two weeks after she started the strike,” her friend Ms. Mestiri said. “He told her she was already a bit too fragile to continue, she was so featherweight. I told her to stop — we could have replaced her with someone. She told me, ‘I always finish my battles.’ ”

Ms. Jribi’s party merged with another to form Al Joumhouri, which succeeded in winning only one parliamentary seat in the last election, in 2014. She stepped down as party leader last year, citing ill health.

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Ms. Jribi was a defender of women’s rights. Along with pushing for equality between the sexes in the constitution, she favored quotas for women in politics and other fields.

“We had heated debates on this because I was against the quotas policy,” Ms. Jribi’s sister Najla said. “But Maya used to say that even if she did not want them for herself, she thought society needed these laws to move forward.”

In addition to her sister Najla, Ms. Jribi’s survivors include two other sisters, Souha Khassiba and Sana Ben Ghorbel, and a brother, Nizar Jribi.

In a statement after the death, President Beji Caid Essebsi hailed Ms. Jribi’s dedication to “democracy, freedom, justice, equality and faith in the civil state.”

Ms. Mestiri called Ms. Jribi a role model for Tunisian women.

“She was a constant fighter, and she used to talk to other women as if she was their equal, not as a top-down member of the elite,” she said.

“She left a vacuum after her death,” Ms. Mestiri added, “because the country still needs people who know the value of liberty and who fought for it before the revolution.”

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Maya Jribi (January 29, 1960 – May 19, 2018)^[1] was a Tunisian politician. From 2006 to 2012, she was the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).^[2] From PDP's merger into the Republican Party in April 2012, until her resignation in 2017, she was the Secretary-General of the centrist party.

Her father is from Tatouine, while her mother is from Algeria. She followed her studies in Radès Tunisia, before studying biology at the University of Sfax, from 1979 to 1983. During that period, she became involved and an active member of the student union, known as UGET, and the Tunisian League of Human Rights. She wrote for the independent weekly Erraï and later for the PDP-newspaper Al Mawkif.^[2]

Together with Ahmed Najib Chebbi, Maya Jribi co-founded the Progressive Socialist Rally, established in 1983, which was later renamed into Progressive Democratic Party (PDP). Since 1986 she has been a member of the party's executive. On 25 December 2006, Jribi was appointed Secretary-General of the PDP.^[2] She has been the first woman to lead a political party in Tunisia.^[3]

From 1 to 20 October 2007, Jribi, along with Najib Chebbi, engaged in a hunger strike to protest against the forced move of the party's headquarters from Tunis, which caused serious health implications for her.^[2]

Jribi headed the PDP’s electoral list in Ben Arous for the Constituent Assembly Elections in October 2011.^[2] The PDP list received one seat in Ben Arous according to preliminary election results. On 9 April 2012, the PDP merged with other secularist parties to form the Republican Party and Maya Jribi became the leader of this party.^[4]

Maya Jribi was an outspoken feminist.^[2] She has labeled Israel as a "Zionist construct",^[5] and proposed to disallow Israeli pilgrims to visit the El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba island.^[6]

Maya Jribi, announced her retirement, during the Republican Party convention in 2017.^{[citation needed]}

On 19th May 2018 she died of cancer.^[7]

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Maya Jribi (b. January 29, 1960, Bou Arada, Tunisia – d. May 19, 2018, Rades, Ben Arous Governorate, Tunisia) was a Tunisian politician. From 2006 to 2012, she was the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).  From PDP's merger into the Republican Party in April 2012, until her resignation in 2017, she was the Secretary-General of the centrist party.

Her father was from Tatouine, while her mother was from Algeria.  She followed her studies in Radès Tunisia, before studying biology at the University of Sfax, from 1979 to 1983. During that period, she became involved in, and an active member of, the student union, known as UGET, and the Tunisian League of Human Rights. She wrote for the independent weekly Erraï and later for the PDP-newspaper Al Mawkif.

Together with Ahmed Najib Chebbi, Maya Jribi co-founded the Progressive Socialist Rally, established in 1983, which was later renamed into Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).  After 1986, Jribi was a member of the party's executive. On December 25, 2006, Jribi was appointed Secretary-General of the PDP.  She was the first woman to lead a political party in Tunisia.

From October 1 to 20, 2007, Jribi, along with Najib Chebbi, engaged in a hunger strike to protest against the forced move of the party's headquarters from Tunis, which caused serious health implications for her.

Jribi headed the PDP’s electoral list in Ben Arous for the Constituent Assembly Elections in October 2011. The PDP list received one seat in Ben Arous according to preliminary election results. On April 9, 2012, the PDP merged with other secularist parties to form the Republican Party and Maya Jribi became the leader of this party.

Maya Jribi was an outspoken feminist.  She labeled Israel as a "Zionist construct", and proposed to disallow Israeli pilgrims to visit the El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba island. 

Maya Jribi, announced her retirement, during the Republican Party convention in 2017.

On May 19, 2018, Maya Jribi died of cancer.

A00018 - Asma Jahangir, Pakistani Human Rights Lawyer and Social Activist

Jahangir, Asma
Asma Jilani Jahangir (Urdu: عاصمہ جہانگیر‬‎, transliteration 'Asimah Jahangir,  January 27, 1952 – February 11, 2018) was a Pakistani human rights lawyer and social activist who co-founded and chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.  She was widely known for playing a prominent role in the Lawyers' Movement and served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur  on Freedom or Belief and as a trustee at the International Crisis Group.

Born and raised in Lahore, Jahangir studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary before receiving her B.A. from Kinnaird and LLB from the Punjab University in 1978. In 1980, she was called to the Lahore High Court, and to the Supreme Court in 1982. In the 1980s, Jahangir became a democracy activist and was imprisoned in 1983 for participating in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy against the military regime of Zia-ul-Haq. In 1986, she moved to Geneva, and became the vice-chair of the Defence for Children International and remained until 1988 when she moved back to Pakistan.

In 1987, Jahangir co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and became its Secretary General until 1993 when she was elevated as the commission's chairperson. She was again put under house arrest in November 2007 after the imposition of emergency. After serving as one of the leaders of the Lawyers' Movement, she became Pakistan's first woman to serve as the President of Supreme Court Bar Association. She co-chaired South Asia Forum for Human Rights and was the vice president of International Federation for Human Rights. Jahangir served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion from August 2004 to July 2010, including serving on the United Nations panel for inquiry into Sri Lankan human rights violations and on a fact-finding mission on Israeli settlements.  In 2016, she was named as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, remaining until her death in February 2018.

Jahangir's prominent writings include The Hudood Ordinance: A Divine Sanction? and Children of a Lesser God.

A00017 - Shadia, Egyptian Actress and Singer

Shadia

Fatma Ahmed Kamal Shaker (Arabic: فاطمة أحمد كمال‎), better known by her stage name Shadia (b. February 8, 1931, Sharqia Governorate, Egypt – d. November 28, 2017, Cairo, Egypt), was an Egyptian actress and singer. She was famous for her roles in light comedies and drama in the 1950s and 1960s. Her first appearance was in the film el-Aql Fi Agaza (The Mind on Vacation), and she retired after her last film La Tas'alni Man Ana (Don't Ask Me Who I Am).

Born Fatma Ahmed Kamal Shaker in 1931, in the Sharqia Governorate, in Egypt. Her father, Ahmed Kamak Shaker, was an Upper Egyptian man whose family moved to El Sharqia and her mother was from a family of both Egyptian and Turk origin. She began acting at the age of thirteen.

Shaker was given the stage name "Shadia" by the film director Helmy Rafla. In her heyday during the 1950s and 1960s, Shadia acted in numerous melodramas, romance, and comedy films. However, it was her musical talent as a singer that established Shadia as one of the most important Egyptian cinema stars of her era.

Overall, as "Shadia", she performed in more than 100 films. She starred in more than 30 films with the actor Kamal el-Shennawi, and sang opposite Farid al-Atrash and Abdel Halim Hafez,  such as in "The People's Idol" (1967). She also appeared with Faten Hamama in "An Appointment with Life" (1954), and in "The Unknown Woman" (1959) she played the role of Fatma in a heavy melodrama. Other notable films she starred in include "The Thief and the Dogs" (1962) and in her comedy roles in films "Wife Number 13" (1962) and "My Wife the General Manager" (1966). Indeed, Shadia was often cast in cunning and cheeky roles, however, she also played serious roles, such as in "The Road" (1964), and in the stage version of "Raya and Sakina", which was based on the true story of two Alexandrian serial killers and directed by Hussein Kama (1953).

After retiring from acting, Shadia joined a number of Egyptian actresses who took on the veil (hijab) in an act of Islamic resistance and salvation.

Shadia is considered one of the most popular and most talented singers and actresses in the Arabic movie and entertainment industry. Her songs and movies are still sought after, and her songs are popular among all generations.

Shadia was hospitalized on November 4, 2017 after suffering a massive stroke in Cairo. 

On November 28, 2017, Shadia died from respiratory failure caused by the pneumonia.

A00016 - Hadje Halime, The Mother of the Chadian Revolution

Halime, Hadje

Hadje Halime (b. 1930, Salamat, Chad - d. January 7, 2001) was a Chadian activist, educator, and politician called the "mother of the revolution".  Hadjé Halimé Oumar was born in the town of Salamat in 1930 to a mother from Salamat and a father from Abeche. She became involved with the Parti Progressiste Tchadien (PPT) in 1950 while working as a Quranic instructor. She was able to bring in more women who did not know French due to her knowledge of Chadian Arabic. At the time she had only a limited grasp of French. She was particularly close to Gabriel Lisette, the founder of the party, and his wife, Lisette Yéyon. She became responsible for recruiting Northern women following the General Meeting of April 2, 1950.  Halimé harshly criticized the colonial administration's poll tax, and declared that if the PPT secured a victory, the poll tax would be abolished for all despite the platform calling for ending the tax only on women. She declared that Lisette was the undisputed leader of the party, despite the rise of Southern Chadian politician Francois Tombalbaye, and traveled to France on Lisette's urging to meet with the French politician Rene Coty. 

However, in 1959 and 1960, Tombalbaye gained power and Lisette was removed from power.  Halimé became the target of repression soon after independence, unlike her PPT female colleague Kaltouma Nguembang.  As part of a purge of those near to Lisette, Halimé's only son was murdered, and she was arrested in September 1963. At first, she was taken to Massenya in Chari-Baguirmi Region, then to a central prison in Chad's capital of N'Djamena, and finally to a dreaded prison at Kela. At the Kela prison, she was regularly tortured by guards through electrocution while French and Israeli army officers supervised. Her torture resulted in her losing all her fingernails and hair. Despite Tombalbaye wanting Halimé to be killed, a French officer spared her life. In an interview, she stated that only her faith was able to keep her going through the difficult circumstances of torture. She was finally released on April 28, 1975, days after the overthrow of Tombalbaye and his regime. Out of 600 people who were imprisoned during this purge, she was one of only 45 who lived.

Lisette, who had been exiled in France, helped bring her to Paris to receive medical treatment. Halimé spent time in a hospital in Cote d'Ivoire, where the president Felix Houphouet-Boigny mandated that her medical care be free. She later joined the National Liberation Front of Chad or FROLINAT, which was based in Libya. In 1978, she moved to Tripoli and returned to politics. FROLINAT members dubbed her "the mother of the revolution", and the party seized power in 1979. She also began educating girls in Libya and founded an Islamic school, the Rising New Generation, where she taught religion, home economics, and child care. She taught over 3600 girls at the school during her years there.

Halime returned to N'Djamena in 1980 with the Popular Armed Forces (FAP) leader Goukouni Oueddei. She was then the president of the women's faction of FROLINAT. After the election of Hissene Habre in 1982, she left with forces loyal to Oueddeï in Libya. While in Libya, Halimé taught military skills to exiled Chadian women. She returned to Chad in 1991, a year after the overthrow of Habré by Idriss Deby.  Many people told Deby they would support him only if he received the backing of Halimé, which she eventually gave. Shortly after her return, she won a seat in Chad's parliament and served there until 1996.

In 1993, Halime participated in the National Sovereign Conference (CNS), and was one of the most fervent defenders of the Arabic language. In 1994, she created an association called Women Az-Zara. On behalf of the association, she was voted among ten women candidates to be a member of the Higher Council of Transition, staying four years. In June 1996, she ran for parliament as a member of the opposition National Front of Chad party, as it was impossible to run as an independent. She was defeated but maintained the election was rigged. Halimé afterwards cared for orphans whose parents were killed during the Habré regime. She also opened an Arabic school in N'Djamena.

Halime went on six pilgrimages to Mecca in her life, including one last trip in 2000. She died on January 7, 2001.

A00015 - Shirin Ebadi, First Muslim Woman (Iranian) Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

Ebadi, Shirin
Shirin Ebadi (b. June 21, 1947, Hamadan, Iran) was an Iranian lawyer, writer, and teacher, who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, especially those of women and children in Iran. She was the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to receive the award.

Ebadi was born into an educated Iranian family; her father was an author and a lecturer in commercial law. When she was an infant, her family moved to Tehran.  Ebadi attended Anoshiravn Dadgar and Reza Shah Kabir schools before earning a law degree, in only three and a half years, from the University of Tehrān (1969). That same year she took an apprenticeship at the Department of Justice and became one of the first women judges in Iran. While serving as a judge, she also earned a doctorate in private law from the University of Tehrān (1971). From 1975 to 1979 she was head of the city court of Tehrān.

After the 1979 revolution and the establishment of an Islamic republic, women were deemed unsuitable to serve as judges because the new leaders believed that Islam forbids it. Ebadi was subsequently forced to become a clerk of the court. After she and other female judges protested this action, they were given higher roles within the Department of Justice but were still not allowed to serve as judges. Ebadi resigned in protest. She then chose to practice law but was initially denied a lawyer’s license. In 1992, after years of struggle, she finally obtained a license to practice law and began to do so. She also taught at the University of Tehrān and became an advocate for civil rights. In court, Ebadi defended women and dissidents and represented many people who, like her, had run afoul of the Iranian government. She also distributed evidence implicating government officials in the 1999 murders of students at the University of Tehrān, for which she was jailed for three weeks in 2000. Found guilty of “disturbing public opinion,” she was given a prison term, barred from practicing law for five years, and fined, although her sentence was later suspended.

Ebadi wrote a number of books on the subject of human rights. These include The Rights of the Child: A Study of Legal Aspects of Children’s Rights in Iran (1994), History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran (2000), and The Rights of Women (2002). She also was founder and head of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights in Iran. In addition to writing books on human rights, Ebadi reflected on her own experiences in Iran Awakening: From Prison to Peace Prize, One Woman’s Struggle at the Crossroads (2006; with Azadeh Moaveni; also published as Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope).

A00014 - Fadwa Suleiman, Syrian Actress and Activist

Suleiman, Fadwa
Fadwa Suleiman or Fadwa Soliman (b. May 17, 1970, Aleppo, Syria – d. August 17, 2017, Paris, France) was a Syrian actress of an Alawite descent who led a Sunni-majority protest against Bashar al-Assad's government in Homs.  She became one of the most recognized faces of the Syrian Civil War.

Born in Aleppo, Suleiman moved to the capital Damascus to pursue an acting career where she performed in numerous plays, Maria's Voice and Media, and in at least a dozen TV shows, including in The Diary of Abou Antar and Little Ladies.  She also played an art teacher at an orphanage in Small Hearts, a television series that helped raise awareness about human organ trafficking and was broadcast by several Arab channels. She also acted in an Arabic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Qabbani theater in Damascus.

At the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011, Suleiman was one of the few outspoken actresses against Assad's government. Knowing her fate would be death or prison, Suleiman wanted to participate in the demonstration to dispel what she said was public perception that all in the Alawite community, which comprised around 10 per cent of the Syrian population, supported Assad's government. She also wanted to dismiss the government's narrative that those who participate in protests were either Islamists or armed terrorists. She appeared at rallies demanding Assad's removal, sharing the podium with soccer star Abdelbasset Sarout, one of a number of Syrian celebrities who backed the revolt.

Suleiman also delivered impassioned monologues to the camera, calling for peaceful protests to continue across the country until Assad was overthrown.  In one video message in 2011, Suleiman said security forces were searching Homs neighborhoods for her, and beating people to force them to reveal her hiding place. She cut her hair short like a boy, and moved from house to house to evade capture. In 2012, she fled with her husband via Lebanon and moved to France, where they resided in Paris. 

On August 17, 2017, Suleiman died of cancer while in exile in Paris, aged 47.