Whatever their chosen field – from politics and pop stardom to fashion and feminism – women have been leaving their mark on the world since time began. Here are the five most inspirational women of the world.
Mother Teresa, the Nobel Peace Prize winner (1979), aimed at looking after those who had nobody to look after them through her own order “The Missionaries of Charity”. She worked tirelessly towards her goal until her ill-health – that included two heart attacks, pneumonia and malaria – forced her to step down in March 1997, following which she took her last breath in September 1997.
Burmese opposition politician Suu Kyi was under house arrest for 15 years for her pre-democracy campaigning. She only gained release in 2010 following an international campaign to let her free. She won a Nobel Prize in 1991 where it was said that “Suu Kyi’s struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades”.
Princess Diana was a well-loved “people’s princess”. She devoted her life to charity work; she led a Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign to ban landmines. Diana was one of the first celebrities photographed touching and holding HIV/AIDS patients and many experts credit her with removing the stigma associated with AIDS. By supporting the causes of AIDS, she is credited as beginning the public conversation about AIDS as an epidemic
Benazir Bhutto was the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan (1993-1996) and the first woman to head a Muslim state. During her leadership, she ended military dictatorship in her country and fought for women rights. She was assassinated in a suicide attack in 2007. Her character, her personality and her role as a mother and the prime minister of Pakistan is a source of inspiration for many.
‘’I found that a whole series of people opposed me simply on the grounds that I was a woman. The clerics took to the mosque saying that Pakistan had thrown itself outside the Muslim world and the Muslim ummah by voting for a woman, that a woman had usurped a man’s place in the Islamic society,’’ Benazir Bhutto
Oprah, a generous philanthropist, who is today worth $2.7 billion as a famous US talk show host and a media proprietor, was born to a poor single mother in Mississippi.When it comes to being benevolent and giving to charity, one person comes to mind: Oprah Winfrey. She has donated millions of dollars to various charities and organizations, with most of her money going to three foundations: The Angel Network, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, and The Oprah Winfrey Operating Foundation.