Arfi Hagi Yusuf, Women’s Supplement Coordinator
Malala Yousafzai
Eighteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai was born in Mingora, Pakistan in the Swat Valley region. In 2008, several attacks occurred to girls attending school in this region at the hands of the Taliban. She spoke out in one of her most famous speeches in Peshawar, Pakistan titled “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” In 2009, Malala began blogging for the BBC about living under the Taliban’s threats. She wrote under the pen name Gul Makai to hide her identity. However, she was revealed to be the BBC blogger December of that year. At 15, Yousafzai and her family learned that the Taliban had issued a death threat against her. October 9, 2012, on her way home from school, she was shot on a bus. The gunman fired at her, hitting Yousafzai in the left side of her head. The bullet traveled down her neck, injuring two other girls in the attack.
Yousafzai continues to be an advocator for the power of education. She is the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2013. The European parliament awarded Yousafzai the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. A documentary was released October 2015 about her life titled He Named Me Malala. She’s also co-authored her bestseller memoir I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban in 2013.
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox is a producer, actress, and transgender advocate who made television history by becoming the first African-American transgender woman to appear on American reality show, as a finalist on VH1’s I Want to Work for Diddy. The show won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2009.
Her popularity led her to star in, co-create, and co-produce her own show TRANSform Me. This made her the first African-American Trans woman to produce and star in her own television show, which was also nominated for a GLAAD media award for Outstanding Reality Program. Cox has guest starred roles in shows such as Law and Order, The Mindy Project, and HBO’s Bored to Death. She is most famously known for her role in Netflix series Orange is the New Black as Sophia Burset.
Cox continues to advocate for transgender representation in the media by continuing to tell stories that reflect the depth, diversity, and humanity of the transgender experience.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is an American tennis player who holds the most major singles, doubles, and mixed-doubles titles in both male and female categories. Holding the record of 36 major titles puts her fifth on the all-time list and second in the open era. Williams has an impressive resume but this does not shield her from unwarranted criticism from both players and mainstream media outlets. Despite unwarranted criticism drenched in anti-black misogyny, Williams stays trail-blazing for other women of colour in a sport that lacks representation.
Shonda Rhimes
Award-winning writer, director, and producer Shonda Rhimes created hit television shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder. In 2007 she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 People Who Help Shape the World. She dominates ABC on Thursday nights where the nights are called TGIT (Thank God it’s Thursday) but has been suggested to be nicknamed TGFS (Thank God For Shonda.) Rhimes continues to create black characters who have depth and play roles outside of stereotypes. She trail-blazes the path for other women of colour who want to go into a field with such little representation.
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo is arguably one of the most well-known artists with a disability. She was injured in a trolley accident as a teen and broke her back, which never fully healed. While she is most known for her self-portraits, she was also very politically active and married communist artist Diego Rivera. Kahlo considered herself to be an individual, not choosing to self-identify with gender, simultaneously deconstructing gender dichotomies and advocating for equity. She was revolutionary for her time, breaking societal norms despite backlash. Kahlo’s art and advocacy lives on through her pieces.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter needs no introduction. The world-famous American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer has taken over the globe. In her 19-year career she has sold over 118 million records as a solo artist, and a further 60 million with girl group Destiny’s Child, making her one of the bestselling music artists of all time. She is the most nominated woman in Grammy history and has won 20 Grammy Awards.
Further, she has been recognized for numerous awards including: the top certified artist of the 2000s by Recording Industry Association of America, Billboard naming Beyoncé the Top Radio Songs Artist of the Decade, the Top Female Artist, and in 2011 received the Billboard Millennium Award. Time magazine also listed her among the 100 Most Influential People in 2013 and 2014, while Forbes also listed her as one of The World’s Most Powerful Women in Entertainment in 2015. Releasing songs like “Independent Woman” (with Destiny’s Child), “Run the World (Girls),” “Flawless,” “Pretty Hurts,” and “Formation” it is clear that Beyoncé uses her art and platform to push female empowerment.
