Seven - A Documentary Play

The play is a collaboration between Vital Voices and seven award-winning women playwrights, including: Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith, and Susan Yankowitz. It profiles seven women leaders from Vital Voices' Global Leadership Network to illustrate their challenges and highlight their successes.

About the women:

Hafsat Abiola, Nigeria, an advocate for human rights and democracy following the murder of her activist parents, founded the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy, which provides skills-training and leadership opportunities for young women across Nigeria. She now helps build bridges between African and Chinese women, as China increases its engagement in the African continent.

Farida Azizi, Afghanistan, became an activist fighting the marginalization of women under Taliban rule in her native country. Because of threats on her life, she has gained asylum and now lives in the United States with her two children and works on women's rights and peace-building in Afghanistan.

Annabella De Leon, Guatemala, raised herself and her family out of poverty by getting an education. She has been a Congresswoman since 1995 and has received death threats because of her fight against corruption and for the rights of the poor, particularly women and indigenous peoples.

Against tremendous odds in 1993, Marina Pisklakova-Parker, Russia, founded the first hotline for victims of domestic violence, which has since grown into Center ANNA, part of a coalition that has provided crisis and counseling services for 100,000 Russian women.

Gang raped by four men and forced to walk home almost naked in retribution for an alleged "honor crime," Mukhtar Mai, Pakistan, and her harrowing story grabbed headlines across the world. Instead of taking the traditional "women's" route of committing suicide, she brought her rapists to justice, built schools to improve the condition of women, and became an advocate for education in her country.

Inez McCormack, Northern Ireland, is an activist for women's and human rights, labor, and social justice and a former President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. She now chairs a program, the Participation and Practice of Rights Project, that helps the disadvantaged access resources and services in Ireland, both North and South.

The former Minister of Women's Affairs in Cambodia (one of only two women in the cabinet), Mu Sochua was co-nominated in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work against sex trafficking of women in Cambodia and neighboring Thailand.

To learn more visit www.vitalvoices.org

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• performing
• arts
• human
• rights
• documentary

[Trsh3r]

What an incredible cast of playwrights. I hope I will get to see this one day. In the meantime, more power to the women doing the readings and attending them.

[AliceStokesPaul]

This is simply wonderful!! We need more from Vital Voices!

[ryartiste]

This is a wonderful video. I hope this play will be published because I'd love to read it. I wondered if any of the clips shown here were the work of Ruth Margraff. I did a playwriting workshop with her last summer, and it was a marvelous experience. She's a major talent whom I wish was a little better-known, but I believe her time will come.