Manasi Pradhan to be a ‘Guest Speaker’ at Oxford Union

The Oxford Union has invited eminent women’s rights activists and author Manasi Pradhan as a ‘Guest Speaker’. The Union which hosts world’s leaders has invited Pradhan as the ‘leading global women’s rights icon’ to share a ‘global vision’. She will be addressing the issues of gender inequalities and crime against women that remains a major challenge across the world. The address is scheduled for June 6.

 Manasi Pradhan is the founder of Honour for Women National Campaign, a nationwide movement to end violence against women in India.

Known as the world’s most prestigious debating society – the union was founded in the year 1823. Oxford Union has also hosted renowned Scientist Stephen Hawking.

Also: PadMan Becomes The First Indian Film To Be Screened At Oxford Union

New York-based 'Bustle' magazine named Pradhan among 20 most inspiring feminist authors and activists in 2016. She shared this space with Nobel Prize winners Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchu, Malala Yousafzai, Betty Friedan, Naomi Klein, Angela Davis, Kate Millett and Gloria Steinem.

In 2017, in a list by the Los Angeles-based Welker Media Inc., she was amongst 12 most powerful feminist change-makers across the globe.

Manasi was born in a poor family in a remote village of Odisha. The eldest of four siblings, she was the first woman from her village to complete matriculation. There was only one high school in the entire region of her village. So, she used to walk 15 km daily amid the hilly terrain and swamp.

She also went on to be the first woman to graduate in Economics from Government Women’s College, Puri, and thereafter achieve an M.A. in Odia literature. Further, she completed her Bachelor of Law from G.M. Law College, in Puri. Pradhan’s life is inspiring. In the United States and Israel, documentaries are made on her inspiring life story.

Also, earlier this year Padman became the first Indian film ever to be screened at the Oxford Union. When the writer-producer Twinkle Khanna was invited to speak at the Oxford Union.

Picture Credits: The YP Foundation

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Deepali is an intern with SheThePeople.TV