Our Guest Speakers
Panel Moderator
Femi Oke
Femi Oke is an international journalist and broadcaster. She became known for her reporting on Africa after joining CNN International in 1999, where for nine years she hosted and reported for CNN's weekly award-winning African affairs programme ‘Inside Africa’.
She began her career as a junior reporter for the United Kingdom’s first talk radio station, LBC. She then went on to work for commercial radio throughout her school and university career. After graduating from Birmingham University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Language, she joined the BBC as a radio reporter and producer.
For the last twenty years, she has worked for BBC television and radio, Sky TV, Wire TV, National Geographic Channel and CNN.
Currently based in New York, Femi brings a distinct, international tone to her role as special correspondent for national radio news show, ‘The Takeaway’, broadcast from the studios of WNYC Radio and online across America with the New York Times, the BBC and Public Radio International. As well as her radio commitments on ‘The Takeaway’, Femi also contributes stories and broadcasts for the BBC.
She has been invited to teach on behalf of the World Meteorological Organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has conducted guest lectures for Emory University in Atlanta and has been a guest speaker at the United Nations, addressing the World Food Programme in Rome, Italy.
Panel Members
Professor Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, is a leading authority in the area of Civil Rights, Black feminist legal theory and race, racism and the law. Her articles have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, National Black Law Journal, Stanford Law Review and Southern California Law Review. She is the founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory Workshop and the co-editor of ‘Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement’. Kimberlé has lectured widely on race matters, addressing audiences across the United States of America as well as in Europe, India, Africa and South America.
A specialist on race and gender equality, she has facilitated workshops for human rights activists in Brazil and India, and for constitutional court judges in South Africa. Her groundbreaking work on ‘Intersectionality’ has been lauded globally and was influential in the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution.
Kimberlé has worked extensively on a variety of issues pertaining to gender and race in the domestic arena including violence against women. She has served as a member of the National Science Foundation’s committee to research violence against women and has consulted with leading foundations, social justice organisations and corporations to advance their race and gender equity initiatives.
Kimberlé was twice awarded Professor of the Year at UCLA Law School and received an Unsung Heroine Award from the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights and the ACLU Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellowship. Kimberlé has also received the Fulbright Distinguished Chair for Latin America. She was a Fellow at Stanford University and a visiting scholar at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
Dianne Laurance
Dianne Laurance is Executive Director of the Pivot Group and the Founder and Chairman of Laurance Wines.
Throughout her career, she has been involved in a diverse range of successful business ventures including restaurants, design, manufacturing and property development.
Dianne’s focus now is to empower women and girls within Australia. Her involvement in a number of organisations including the Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School Women’s Leadership Board, Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World, the Clinton Global Initiative and TED Women give her a platform to achieve this.
Dianne is particularly committed to assisting indigenous women artists from Western Australian communities to preserve and translate their culture and history through art. She also provides them with a lucrative business venture for their communities and in doing so, promotes economic independence of the women.
Ten years ago she entered the wine industry after purchasing a vineyard in the premium wine growing region of Margaret River in Western Australia. She has established this as a key wine tourism destination and produced ten wines under her own label.
Dianne supports and is a benefactor of many charitable institutions.
Mariane Pearl
Mariane Pearl is a journalist and author who writes features in English, Spanish and French.
Her first book, ‘A Mighty Heart’, was an international success and was translated into fifteen languages. In 2007, it was released as a major feature film, starring Angelina Jolie in the role of Mariane Pearl. Her second book ‘In Search of Hope’ is a collection of profiles of extraordinary women around the world. The collection first appeared as a series of columns in Glamour magazine, the widest circulating women's magazine in the world.
Mariane is a successful public speaker for international audiences and 8,000 people recently heard her speak at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. She is often invited to participate as subject matter expert for a selection of key awards around the globe. Her jury work includes the Gucci-Tribeca documentary fund, the CNN Heroes award, the Internews global journalism award, the Sciences Politiques journalism award, and the Vital Voices award.
She contributes to many publications such as The New York Times, The Sunday Times, Condé Nast Traveller, Self Magazine, The Independent and others. She also works for broadcast media, reporting and producing documentaries. Mariane is currently writing her third book and working on a documentary on resilience.
Mariane is the recipient of the National Headliners award for magazine writing, the Time Warner Woman of the Year award, The White House project award, the American Women in Radio and Television award, the Internews award for excellence in international reporting, the Vital Voices award, the ‘El Mundo’ editorial award in Spain, and the ‘Prix Vérité’ in France for excellence in non-fiction writing, amongst several other honours.
Jehan Sadat
Mrs. Jehan Sadat was married to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and has been a life-long social activist, humanitarian, and nationalist who has dedicated herself to her country and its people.
She founded the African-Arab Women’s League and hosts as well as participates in countless conferences and seminars concerning women’s issues, children’s welfare, and peace. Always concerned with the eradication of illiteracy, family planning, and the rights of women, Mrs. Sadat became socially active long before her husband became the President of Egypt. One of her first projects was the Talla Society, a cooperative for the illiterate village women of a province in the Nile Delta region. She has also supported Egyptian disabled war veterans and their families by establishing Wafa’ Wa Amal (Faith and Hope), the first and largest rehabilitation center of its kind in the Middle East. Mrs. Sadat introduced the first S.O.S. Children’s Villages to Egypt to offer orphaned children the chance to lead normal lives.
Mrs. Jehan Sadat was instrumental in the reform of Egypt’s civil rights laws which had for decades inhibited women from reaching their political and social potential and from gaining their right to participate fully in public life.
Following the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, Mrs. Sadat retreated from public life. After a period of grief and uncertainty, she resumed her role as an educator, lecturer, social activist for women’s rights and the cause of international peace by becoming a Visiting Professor at the American University in Washington, D.C. and the University of South Carolina. Currently, Mrs. Sadat is a tenured professor at the University of Maryland where The Anwar Sadat Chair for Development and Peace was established and fully endowed in 1997.
Dalia Ziada
Dalia Ziada is an Egyptian rights activist, blogger, published writer and poet. At the age of 25, Dalia joined the American Islamic Congress as the founding director of its North Africa bureau in Cairo.
Dalia dedicates her life to promoting women’s rights, freedom of expression, and nonviolent action in her homeland and across the Middle East. In November 2008, despite numerous security and logistical challenges, Dalia organised the first Cairo Human Rights Film Festival, the first film festival of kind in the history of the Middle East. On 11 September 2009, Dalia founded the ‘Fearless Fighter for Faith Freedom’ (5Fs) campaign to promote religious freedom and tolerance.
Dalia has been speaking out against Female Genital Mutilation and all forms of violence against women since she was a young girl. She has given several lectures on women’s rights and freedom of expression at global events, including at the American University in Cairo, the American Embassy in Cairo, the ICDS Rawaq Center in Cairo, Harvard University, the CATO Institute in Washington, D.C. and Morocco’s Al-Akhawyn University.
Dalia has been profiled as a women’s rights champion by Culture Connect Magazine, Time Magazine, CNN, PBS TV, BBC Radio, CBS Radio, Al-Arabiya TV, Al-Jazeera TV and Al-Ahram Newspaper. She was also invited to attend a speech given by President Obama in Cairo in 2009, after which she was invited to a private meeting with White House Senior Advisor, Valerie Jarrett.
