What made you want to get involved with helping women?

I have known that I wanted to help women since I was 15 years old. The idea originated with my mother, who told me about the different oppressions of women both through stories of my ancestors and of other women. I remember telling my mother, ‘That is what I am going to do. I am going to dedicate my life to helping women.’ And she said, ‘You can.’ Her acknowledgement and encouragement of it really helped me believe that I could do that.

Over the next several years I went to study different things. At the age of 23, at the same time that I was studying the Holocaust, I heard about the rape and concentration camps in Bosnia and I was seeing images equivalent to that of the Holocaust. That made me really want to do something to help. The images triggered and strengthened my commitment and memory to work for women, and that was the new beginning.

The women in Bosnia motivated you?

What was happening to them is no different to what is happening today in the Congo and what happened in World War II to German women. It is consistent across the different contexts. In the case of Bosnia, there were rape camps and girls as young as nine years old and women as old as 80 who were imprisoned in these camps. These women were given numbers and when their numbers were called they had to go into the second room and be gang-raped. They had to cook for the soldiers naked, clean naked and they were raped several times a day. They were gang-raped for a minimum of one month until they got a prisoner exchange. Sadly, 17 years later I look at what is happening to women in war and the story is exactly the same.

Your first choice, Lisa Shannon’s A Thousand Sisters, is all about the lives of the women in the Congo.

Lisa is an ordinary American who tells the inspiring story of her life-changing decision to help the women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Even though she wasn’t a product of rape or war, she decided to do something about the women in the Congo. She led a good middle-class lifestyle with a good job and a good man but she woke up one day and realised that she needed to do something with her life and to contribute to the larger world. So she decided to run marathons in the US to help women in the Congo.

For me this story is no different from how the anti-slavery movement originated in England. Even though people there had never owned slaves or been in the countries where the slaves came from, they were people like Lisa whose consciences compelled them to do something. As a result of her actions, Lisa has inspired thousands and thousands of women from all over the world to join her.

And she actually ran a marathon in the Congo, didn’t she?

Yes, but she started off running in the US and raising money there. By the time she went to the Congo she had already helped 100 women there and that is what I like about her. Her actions are things that other people can do as well – simple actions that are meaningful yet that don’t require you to turn your life around to make a difference. You don’t have to go off to the Congo and run. You can do things locally that have a big impact as well. 

Your next choice is Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, which looks at women’s lives particularly in Africa and Asia.

Half the Sky was one of the tipping points in the discussion of how we re-energise the women’s movement and expand it to a mainstream audience that is more inclusive of women and men; individuals who are deeply concerned about global issues but who have not necessarily been aware about women’s issues before. This book elevated the topic of women’s rights and made it acceptable for every woman and man to read and to have that ‘Oh my God’ moment, where they say, ‘This should not be acceptable. Women shouldn’t be treated like this.’

If I look at the recent modern history of the women’s movement I would say that Half the Sky is one of the few pivotal books that really changed the movement from just being confined to activists to something more universal. What I love about it the most is this idea that if the 19th century was about stopping slavery and the 20th century was about civil rights, the 21st century is about women’s rights. The awakening and realisation of that call is very exciting and they do this so movingly through the personal stories of all the women they meet. 

I am intrigued to find out what Jelaluddin Rumi’s The Essential Rumi, which is translated by Coleman Barks, has to do with the empowerment of women.

In the evolution of my journey I learned that the way that we can transform women’s lives and our lives generally is not necessarily only through the warrior’s ways. I do not deny the warrior’s ways. I have ridden the horse and carried the armour! But as I evolve in my own growth I have learnt that the way we can truly achieve transformation and change is through our own inner peace.