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BBC 100 Women 2020: Who is on the list this year?

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November 26-

The BBC has revealed its list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2020.

This year 100 Women is highlighting those who are leading change and making a difference during these turbulent times.

The list includes Sanna Marin, who leads Finland’s all-female coalition government, Michelle Yeoh, star of the new Avatar and Marvel films and Sarah Gilbert, who heads the Oxford University research into a coronavirus vaccine, as well as Jane Fonda, a climate activist and actress.

And in an extraordinary year – when countless women around the world have made sacrifices to help others – one name on the 100 Women list has been left blank as a tribute.

The BBC’s 100 women of 2020

100 women in total

  • Unsung hero

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    WorldwideMaking a difference

    In an extraordinary year, when countless women around the world have made a sacrifice to help others, the first place on the list is left open to acknowledge their work and to remember those who have lost their lives while making a difference.

  • Loza Abera Geinore

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    EthiopiaFootballer

    Loza Abera Geinore was born and raised in a small town in southern Ethiopia. She played for Hawassa City SC in the Ethiopian Women’s Premier League for two seasons, during which time she became the club’s top goalscorer.

  • Houda Abouz

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    MoroccoRapper

    Houda Abouz, aka Khtek, is a Moroccan rapper known for her unique style and lyrical songs.

  • Christina Adane

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    NetherlandsCampaigner

    Christina was behind the UK petition for free school meals over the summer holidays, which footballer Marcus Rashford supported.

  • Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

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    Sierra LeoneMayor

    Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE is best known for her Transform Freetown plan, which targets 11 sectors – from tackling environmental degradation and climate change to helping create jobs in order to reduce youth unemployment.

  • Rina Akter

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    BangladeshFormer sex worker

    During the pandemic, Rina and her team of helpers have served around 400 meals a week – including rice, vegetables, eggs and meat – to sex workers in Dhaka who have found themselves without clients, and are thus struggling to feed themselves.

  • Sarah Al-Amiri

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    UAEMinister for Advanced Technologies

    Her Excellency Sarah Al-Amiri is UAE Minister of State for Advanced Technologies and chairs the UAE Space Agency. She was previously science lead and deputy project manager for the Emirates Mars Mission.

  • Waad al-Kateab

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    SyriaFilm-maker

    Waad al-Kateab is a Syrian activist, journalist and award-winning film-maker who has received numerous accolades (including an Emmy) for her news reports in Aleppo. In 2020 her first feature, For Sama, won the Bafta award for best documentary, and was nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary feature.

  • Adriana Albini

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    ItalyPathologist

    Adriana Albini is head of the vascular biology and angiogenesis laboratory of IRCCS MultiMedica, and of the MultiMedica Foundation; professor of general pathology at the University of Milan-Bicocca and a former visiting scientist at the US National Institutes of Health.

  • Ubah Ali

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    SomalilandFGM educator

    Ubah Ali is a co-founder of Solace for Somaliland Girls, a foundation committed to eradicating all forms of female genital mutilation (FGM) across communities in Somaliland, through education and empowerment.

  • Nisreen Alwan

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    Iraq/UKPublic health expert

    Nisreen is a public health doctor and academic in the UK who researches the health and wellbeing of women and children, focusing on pregnancy.

  • Elizabeth Anionwu

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    UKNurse

    Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu is an emeritus professor of nursing at the University of West London and a patron of the UK Sickle Cell Society.

  • Nadeen Ashraf

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    EgyptCampaigner

    Nadeen is a philosophy student who believes in social media as a tool for change. She is passionate about spreading knowledge in a way that’s accessible to the general population.

  • Erica Baker

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    GermanyEngineer

    Erica is a director of engineering at GitHub. Erica’s career in tech began 19 years ago providing tech support for the University of Alaska before moving to Google in 2006.

  • Diana Barran

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    UKParliamentary Under Secretary of State

    Baroness Barran was appointed the UK’s Minister for Civil Society in 2019, and is responsible for policy related to the Office for Civil Society. She is the founder and former chief executive of SafeLives, a national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse.

  • Bilkis

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    IndiaProtest leader

    At 82, Bilkis was part of a group of women who peacefully protested against a controversial citizenship law.

  • Cindy Bishop

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    ThailandUN Women ambassador/model

    Cindy Sirinya Bishop is a model, actress and TV host, who also campaigns on ending violence against women. This year she was appointed UN Women regional goodwill ambassador for Asia and the Pacific, promoting gender equality through education, communities and governments.

  • Macinley Butson

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    AustraliaScientist and inventor

    Macinley Butson began coming up with inventions when she was seven years old. Now 20, she has invented a range of devices, whose aims include improving outcomes for radiotherapy breast-cancer patients and providing safe drinking water for developing communities.

  • Evelina Cabrera

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    ArgentinaFootball coach and manager

    Evelina was born into a context of vulnerability, but that did not prevent her from becoming a football coach and manager. She founded the Argentinian Women’s Football Association at the age of 27.

  • Wendy Beatriz Caishpal Jaco

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    El SalvadorDisability activist

    Wendy Caishpal is an entrepreneur, activist, motivational speaker, and spokesperson for the rights of disabled people and survivors of armed conflicts.

  • Carolina Castro

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    ArgentinaUnion leader

    Carolina Castro is the first woman to reach a governing position at the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) in its 130-year history. Her activism has contributed to advancing the gender-equality agenda across party lines in a country where public debate is highly polarised.

  • Agnes Chow

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    Hong KongPro-democracy activist

    Agnes Chow, a 23-year-old pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong, was a key figure during the 2014 Umbrella Movement. This year she was one of a handful of activists arrested under a controversial new security law imposed by Beijing. She was accused of “colluding with foreign forces”.

  • Patrisse Cullors

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    USHuman rights activist

    Artist, organiser, educator, and popular public speaker, Patrisse Cullors is a Los Angeles native, co-Founder and executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, founder of grassroots Los Angeles-based organisation Dignity and Power Now.

  • Tsitsi Dangarembga

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    ZimbabweWriter and film-maker

    Tsitsi is a critically acclaimed writer, film-maker and cultural activist. She has written award-winning books that are regarded as Zimbabwean classics, and her films have screened at festivals across the world, including the Sundance Film Festival. She lives in Harare, working locally with female African film-makers.

  • Shani Dhanda

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    UKDisability activist

    Shani Dhanda is an award-winning disability specialist and social entrepreneur, recognised as one of the UK’s most influential disabled people. Shani founded, and continues to lead, the Diversability Card initiative, the Asian Woman Festival and the Asian Disability Network.

  • Naomi Dickson

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    UKChief executive

    Naomi has dedicated her professional life to supporting Jewish women and children who have experienced domestic abuse, and to educating the Jewish community so that they have the tools to highlight, expose and prevent domestic abuse, now and in the future.

  • Karen Dolva

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    NorwayInnovator

    Karen Dolva is the chief executive and co-founder of No Isolation, an Oslo-based start-up founded in October 2015. Its mission is to bring people together through warm technology and knowledge.

  • Ilwad Elman

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    SomaliaPeace activist

    Ilwad Elman is a young female leader at the forefront of the Somali peace process and a global authority on ending conflict and reconciling communities.

  • Jeong Eun-kyeong

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    South KoreaKDCA Commissioner

    Dr Jeong Eun-kyeong has been described as a “virus-hunter” and has led South Korea’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

  • Fang Fang

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    ChinaWriter

    Fang Fang, whose real name is Wang Fang, is an award-winning Chinese author who has produced more than 100 works. This year, she began documenting events in Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged.

  • Somaya Faruqi

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    AfghanistanRobotics team leader

    When Afghanistan’s first case of Covid-19 was reported in her home province of Herat, Somaya and her all-female robotics team – the “Afghan Dreamers” – set to work on a low-cost ventilator to treat coronavirus patients.

  • Eileen Flynn

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    Republic of IrelandSenator

    Eileen Flynn made history this year as the first woman from the Irish Travellers community to sit in the Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Irish Parliament.

  • Jane Fonda

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    USActress

    On-screen, Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actress, renowened for her work in iconic films such as Klute, Coming Home, On Golden Pond and 9 to 5 to name a few. She currently stars in the hit Netflix series Grace and Frankie.

  • Kiran Gandhi

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    USSinger

    Kiran Gandhi, who performs as Madame Gandhi, is a singer and musician, artist and activist whose mission is to elevate and celebrate gender liberation. She has been on tour, drumming with acts such as MIA and Thievery Corporation.

  • Lauren Gardner

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    USScientist

    Lauren Gardner is an engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University, and co-director of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

  • Alicia Garza

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    USHuman-rights activist

    Alicia Garza is an organiser, political strategist, and author of The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart.

  • Iman Ghaleb Al-Hamli

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    YemenMicrogrid manager

    Iman manages a group of 10 women who set up a solar microgrid, offering clean and low-impact energy, just 20 miles from the front line of the devastating Yemeni civil war.

  • Sarah Gilbert

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    UKScientist

    The moment Chinese scientists published genetic details of the new coronavirus, Sarah and her team in Oxford set to work to create a Covid-19 vaccine. Trial results show 70% protection, but the researchers say the figure may be as high as 90% by tweaking the dose.

  • Maggie Gobran

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    EgyptCoptic nun

    Mama Maggie Gobran has devoted her life to transforming those of marginalised children in Egypt. Abandoning a life of affluence and a distinguished academic career, she has dedicated all her energy and resources to observing children, washing their feet, and looking into their eyes and telling them that they matter.

  • Rebeca Gyumi

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    TanzaniaLawyer

    Rebeca Gyumi is the founder and executive director at the Msichana Initiative, a local NGO working to advance girls’ rights. She is an advocate for gender equality, and has vast experience working on youth engagement and building women’s movements,and providing advocacy at national and grassroots levels.

  • Deta Hedman

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    JamaicaDarts champion

    Deta worked nights at Royal Mail for 22 years. She has won 215 darts titles – the second-highest tally in the whole game, beaten only by Phil Taylor. She has appeared in 341 finals, more than anyone else in darts history. Deta arrived in England in 1973 and is the current captain of England Darts.

  • Muyesser Abdul’ehed Hendan

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    Exiled Uighur from Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining)Writer

    Muyesser Abdul’ehed who goes by her pen name, Hendan, began making a name for herself as a poet and essayist while studying medicine. By the time she completed her master’s degree in public health, she had resolved to focus on writing.

  • Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim

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    NigeriaFilm-maker

    Uyaiedu Ipke-Etim is a feminist film-maker, director and LGBTQ+ activist, who has committed herself to creating stories about marginalised groups in Nigeria.

  • Miho Imada

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    JapanSake master brewer

    Sake-brewing has long been a man’s world – for centuries, women were forbidden to set foot in Japan’s breweries.

  • Isaivani

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    IndiaMusician

    Isaivani is a distinctive gaana singer in India. Gaana music emerged from the working class neighbourhoods of North Chennai (formerly Madras) in Tamil Nadu. Isaivani has spent years singing and performing in this male-dominated space.

  • Manasi Joshi

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    IndiaAthlete

    Manasi, an Indian para-athlete, is the current para-badminton world champion. In June 2020, the Badminton World Federation ranked her world number two in the SL3 singles. Manasi is also an engineer and a change-maker.

  • Nadine Kaadan

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    FranceWriter/illustrator

    Nadine Kaadan is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator from Syria now living in London. She is published in several countries and languages and her mission is to champion empowered and inclusive representation in children’s books, so that every child can see themselves in a story.

  • Mulenga Kapwepwe

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    ZambiaArtist and curator

    Mulenga Mpundu Kapwepwe co-founded the Zambian Women’s History Museum, lauded in 2020 for marking Zambian women’s contribution to their nation. She has also built libraries for children in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

  • Jemimah Kariuki

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    KenyaDoctor

    Dr Jemimah Kariuki is deeply passionate about preventive medicine, especially in maternal and child health. She is the founder of the Peace Club, initiated in response to post-election violence in 2007, and the Public Health Club (which is instrumental in running cervical-cancer prevention drives).

  • Gülsüm Kav

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    TurkeySocial justice activist

    Gülsüm Kav is a Turkish doctor, academic and co-founder of We Will Stop Femicide. Over the past year, high femicide rates and parliamentary debates over whether to repeal the Istanbul Convention (a legal framework designed to protect victims of domestic violence) have drawn widespread criticism in Turkey.

  • Jackie Kay

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    UKPoet

    Jackie Kay is a Scottish poet, playwright and novelist. Her memoir, Red Dust Road, which details her search for her biological parents, has been described by the author as a “love letter” to her white adoptive parents. In 2016 she was named the Scots Makar – the national poet of Scotland.

  • Salsabila Khairunnisa

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    IndonesiaEnvironmental campaigner

    Salsabila is a 17 year-old student from Jakarta, Indonesia. Every Friday she leads a school strike against deforestation in front of the office of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

  • Mahira Khan

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    PakistanActor

    Mahira Khan is no ordinary actress – she is outspoken against sexual violence, refuses to endorse skin-lightening creams and supports the fight against racism. She wants to tackle social issues in her native Pakistan by changing the narrative in films and on TV.

  • Angélique Kidjo

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    BeninMusician

    Four-time Grammy award winner Angélique Kidjo is one of the greatest artists in international music today. She has cross-pollinated the West African traditions of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America.

  • Chu Kim Duc

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    VietnamArchitect

    Architect Kim Duc is on a mission to promote children’s right to play in Vietnam. As the co-founder and director of Think Playgrounds, she has been working with partners and communities in the country to create over 180 public playgrounds made from recycled materials.

  • Safaa Kumari

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    SyriaPlant virologist

    As a plant virologist, Dr Safaa Kumari looks for solutions to epidemics that destroy crops. After discovering seeds that could safeguard food security in Syria, she risked her life to rescue them from Aleppo.

  • Ishtar Lakhani

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    South AfricaActivist

    Ishtar is a feminist, activist and self-proclaimed “troublemaker”. She is based in South Africa, where she collaborates with social-justice organisations, movements and networks around the world, providing the support needed to strengthen their approaches to human rights-advocacy.

  • Claudia López

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    ColombiaMayor

    Claudia López is the first female mayor of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and the largest city in the country.

  • Josina Machel

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    MozambiqueSocial-justice activist

    Josina Z Machel is a long-standing defender of human rights, born into a legacy of activism. She is fiercely passionate in her life’s calling to advance women’s rights.

  • Sanna Marin

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    FinlandPrime Minister of Finland

    Sanna Marin is Prime Minister of Finland and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland. The coalition government she heads has been formed with four other parties, all led by women: Maria Ohisalo (Green League), Li Andersson (Left Alliance), Anna-Maja Henriksson (Swedish People’s Party) and Annika Saarikko (Centre Party).

  • Hayat Mirshad

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    LebanonActivist

    A feminist activist, journalist and humanitarian, Hayat is co-founder of Fe-Male, a pioneer feminist collective in Lebanon. Unapologetic and uncompromising, Hayat’s mission is to ensure girls and women have access to justice, information, protection and human rights.

  • Bulelwa Mkutukana

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    South AfricaSinger/songwriter

    Bulelwa Mkutukana is better known by her stage name Zahara. She came from humble beginnings in South Africa, and found her love of singing in the school choir. She started her singing career busking on the streets, but in 2011 Zahara’s debut album went double-platinum in less than three weeks.

  • Lucy Monaghan

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    Northern IrelandCampaigner

    Lucy Monaghan waived her right to anonymity, to talk about how she was treated by police and prosecutors in Northern Ireland after reporting her alleged rape in 2015. Police initially told her that, as there was evidence she had been “flirting” with her alleged perpetrator, the case was unlikely to result in a conviction.

  • Douce Namwezi N’Ibamba

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    DR CongoJournalist

    Douce Namwezi N’Ibamba is a multimedia journalist and the founder of Uwezo Afrika Initiative, a non-profit venture promoting women’s empowerment through journalism, job training and social entrepreneurship.

  • Vanessa Nakate

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    UgandaClimate activist

    Vanessa Nakate, 23, is a climate activist from Uganda and founder of the Africa-based Rise Up Movement. She campaigns internationally to highlight the impacts of climate change already occurring in Africa. She focuses particularly on how the climate crisis is exacerbating poverty, conflict and gender inequality.

  • Ethelreda Nakimuli-Mpungu

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    UgandaMental health expert

    Dr Ethel Nakimuli-Mpungu, of Makerere University in Uganda, works towards making therapy more culturally appropriate, particularly for people living with HIV and depression.

  • Nandar

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    MyanmarFeminist activist

    Nandar is a feminist advocate, translator, storyteller and creator of two podcasts: Feminist Talks and G-Taw Zagar Wyne. She founded the Purple Feminists Group, and co-directed a production of The Vagina Monologues in Yangon.

  • Vernetta M Nay Moberly

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    USEnvironmental activist

    Vernetta Moberly is a wife, mother, grandmother and friend.

  • Nemonte Nenquimo

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    EcuadorWaorani leader

    Nemonte Nenquimo is an indigenous Waorani woman committed to defending her ancestral territory, culture and way of life in the Amazon rainforest.

  • Sania Nishtar

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    PakistanGlobal health leader

    Dr Sania Nishtar is a leader in global health and sustainable development. Since 2018, she has been spearheading the transformative Ehsaas Poverty Alleviation programme, which has improved the livelihoods of millions of Pakistanis by providing mobile banking and savings accounts, and other basic resources.

  • Phyllis Omido

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    KenyaEnvironmental activist

    Phyllis Omido is founder and executive director of the Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action (CJGEA), advocating the environmental and socio-economic rights of marginalised communities affected by Kenya’s extractive industries.

  • Laleh Osmany

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    AfghanistanActivist

    In Afghanistan, using a woman’s name in public is frowned upon. Only the father’s name should be recorded on a birth certificate. When a woman marries, her name does not appear on her wedding invitations; when she is ill, her name does not appear on medical prescriptions, and when she dies, her name does not appear on her death certificate or even her headstone.

  • Ridhima Pandey

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    IndiaClimate activist

    Ridhima Pandey is a climate activist who, at the age of nine, filed a petition against the government of India in response to its inaction to mitigate climate change. In 2019, along with 15 other child petitioners, Ridhima filed a lawsuit against five countries at the UN.

  • Lorna Prendergast

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    AustraliaDementia researcher

    In 2019, Lorna Prendergast made global headlines when she graduated from Melbourne University at the age of 90, with a master’s degree in ageing. She dedicated her degree to her late husband, to whom she had been married for 64 years and who had suffered from dementia.

  • Oksana Pushkina

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    RussiaState Duma Deputy

    Oksana Pushkina is the deputy vice-chairwoman of the Committee on Family, Women and Children Issues, at Russia’s State Duma.

  • Cibele Racy

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    BrazilTeacher

    Cibele is a retired headteacher who pioneered the teaching of racial equality to primary schoolchildren in São Paulo.

  • Susana Raffalli

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    VenezuelaNutritionist

    Susana is a humanitarian worker who has spent 22 years assisting in emergencies around the world. She helped Cáritas de Venezuela to establish a tool that showed, in real time, the impact of the humanitarian crisis on children at a time when the crisis was being denied in Venezuela. Susana also founded a network of centres providing nutritional support for children living in slums.

  • Sapana Roka Magar

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    NepalCrematorium technician

    After becoming homeless for three months, Sapana travelled to Kathmandu where she became involved in an organisation that cremates unclaimed bodies.

  • Pardis Sabeti

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    IranComputational geneticist

    Pardis Sabeti is a professor at Harvard University, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has contributed to human and microbial genomics, information theory, and rural infectious disease surveillance and education efforts in West Africa.

  • Febfi Setyawati

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    IndonesiaActivist

    Febfi Setyawati is the founder of Untukteman.id, an organisation that helps vulnerable people – especially ill people with financial difficulties and those affected by Covid-19.

  • Ruth Shady

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    PeruArchaeologist

    Ruth Shady has a doctorate in archaeology and anthropology and is vice-dean of research at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National University of San Marcos. She is director of multidisciplinary research at the Caral archaeological site, considered to be the oldest civilisation in the Americas.

  • Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul

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    ThailandStudent activist

    This year pro-democracy protests have swept through Thailand, and students like 22-year-old Panusaya are at the heart of it. She and other activists were arrested for their involvement but she was later released on bail.

  • Nasrin Sotoudeh

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    IranHuman rights activist

    Nasrin Sotoudeh is an Iranian lawyer advocating for the rule of law and the rights of political prisoners, opposition activists, women and children in Iran. She is on temporary leave from a long prison sentence for standing up against the country’s much-criticised justice system.

  • Kathy Sullivan

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    USScientist/astronaut

    Kathy Sullivan is an accomplished scientist, astronaut, author and executive. She was one of the first six women to join the Nasa astronaut corps in 1978, and holds the distinction of being the first American woman to walk in space.

  • Rima Sultana Rimu

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    BangladeshTeacher

    Rima Sultana Rimu is a member of Young Women Leaders for Peace in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. This programme, part of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, aims to empower young women from conflict-affected countries to be leaders and agents of peace.

  • Lea T

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    BrazilTransgender model

    Not many models can say their first ever job was for Givenchy, but that’s the case for Lea T. She’s been in the business for more than 10 years, and has graced the pages of many high-profile publications, including Marie Claire, Grazia and Vogue.

  • Ana Tijoux

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    FranceMusician

    Chilean hip-hop protester Ana Tijoux is a feminist and activist, who denounces social and cultural deficiencies in her lyrics. Her parents went into exile during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, which left a mark on a career notable for a special sensitivity to political and social issues.

  • Opal Tometi

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    USHuman-rights activist

    Opal Tometi is an award-winning human-rights defender and one of three female co-founders of Black Lives Matter. She is also founder of a new media and advocacy hub, Diaspora Rising.

  • Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

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    BelarusPolitician

    Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is a former presidential candidate in Belarus, where she led a national democratic movement. In August 2020, President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in the leadership election, sparking protests across the country amid widespread accusations of vote-rigging.

  • Yulia Tsvetkova

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    RussiaActivist

    Yulia Tsvetkova was born in a small industrial town in the Russian Far East, where she went on to study art, dancing and directing. Later, from her activist theatre and community centre, she began raising issues related to women’s rights, LGBT rights, anti-militarism and ecology.

  • Arussi Unda

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    MexicoCampaigner

    As Mexico faces rising femicide rates, Arussi and her feminist collective Brujas del Mar (“Witches of the Sea”) have emerged as a voice for women.

  • Anastasia Volkova

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    UkraineEntrepreneur

    Dr Anastasia Volkova is an entrepreneur and agricultural innovator, who uses science and technology to tackle issues of food security.

  • Kotchakorn Voraakhom

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    ThailandLandscape architect

    Kotchakorn Voraakhom describes herself as “a badass Thai urban landscape architect”. She began her work with the aim of prising apart the “cracked pavement” of Bangkok’s sprawling cityscape and letting the seedlings of fresh ideas burst through.

  • Siouxsie Wiles

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    UKScientist

    Siouxsie is a scientist and public-health communicator who has been a force of nature in New Zealand during the pandemic. She has collaborated with cartoonist Toby Morris to communicate the science of Covid-19; their work together includes the popular “flatten the curve” visualisation, which has been translated into many languages and adapted by governments to help people understand lockdowns.

  • Elin Williams

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    Wales, UKDisability blogger

    Elin is a writer and disability advocate who has shared her experiences of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and retinitis pigmentosa (a degenerative eye condition) on her blog, My Blurred World, since she was 16.

  • Alice Wong

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    USDisability activist

    Alice is the founder of the Disability Visibility Project, a grassroots campaign encouraging people with disabilities to record their stories.

  • Leo Yee-Sin

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    SingaporeDoctor

    Dr Leo Yee-Sin runs Singapore’s state-of-the-art National Centre for Infectious Diseases, which is responsible for handling outbreaks of communicable diseases.

  • Michelle Yeoh

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    MalaysiaActor

    Michelle Yeoh broke into acting by performing her own stunts in the “man’s world” of Hong Kong martial arts films. She moved to Hollywood as a Bond girl (starring in Tomorrow Never Dies) and is one of very few actresses from Asia to enjoy a long, successful career in the USA.

  • Aisha Yesufu

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    NigeriaActivist

    Aisha Yesufu is a Nigerian activist demanding good governance in her country.

  • Gulnaz Zhuzbaeva

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    KyrgyzstanDisability activist

    In Kyrgyzstan, there are more than 5,000 people living with visual impairment, but many important governmental documents remain inaccessible to them. Gulnaz Zhuzbaeva, founder of the Kyrgyz Federation of the Blind, has been working tirelessly to make these materials available in Braille and improve access to those with visual impairment.

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How were the 100 Women chosen?

The BBC’s 100 Women team drew up a shortlist based on names gathered by them and suggested by the BBC’s network of World Service languages teams. We were looking for candidates who had made the headlines or influenced important stories over the past 12 months, as well as those who have inspiring stories to tell, achieved something significant or influenced their societies in ways that wouldn’t necessarily make the news. The pool of names was then assessed against this year’s theme – women who led change – and measured for regional representation and due impartiality, before the final names were chosen.

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Credits

Edited by Amelia Butterly, Lara Owen, Lorin Bozkurt, Valeria Perasso, Stephanie Gabbatt, production by Alison Trowsdale, Ana-Lucia Gonzalez, development by Marta Marti Marques, Chloe Skillman and design by Sean Willmott.

Courtesy: BBC

 

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