Advocating for the Rights of People on the Move: A conversation with Refugee Community Leaders

Date: 

Thursday, October 29, 2020, 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Location: 

Virtual Event (Registration Required)

Please join the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy for its signature weekly series this fall, The Fierce Urgency of Now, featuring Black, Indigenous, People of Color scholars, activists, and community leaders, and experts from the Global South. Hosted and facilitated by Sushma Raman and Mathias Risse, the series also aligns with a course they will co-teach this fall at the Harvard Kennedy School on Economic Justice: Theory and Practice.

Join us for a conversation with refugee community leaders on economic justice and migration. Abid Shamdeen, co-founder of Nadia's Initiative, has spent the past five years managing projects that have brought aid and assistance to internally displaced Yazidis in Iraq. With her organization Rohingya Women's Development Network, co-founder Sharifah Shakirah works to change deeply entrenched cultural norms that subjugate women, believing gender equality is the key to lifting the Rohingya community 

Panelists:

  • Abid Shamdeen | Co-founder Nadia's Initiative 
  • Sharifah Shakirah | Co-founder Rohingya Women's Development Network 

Abid Shamdeen is a global development specialist. Shamdeen was born and raised in Sinjar, Iraq. For the past five years, he has advocated for victims of the Yazidi genocide and has managed projects that have brought aid and assistance to internally displaced Yazidis in Iraq. Shamdeen worked for the United States Army in Iraq as a cultural advisor and translator. He holds an Master’s in Political Science from the School of International Service at American University. Shamdeen is a co-founder of Nadia’s Initiative.

Ms. Sharifah Shakirah is the founder and director of the Rohingya Women Development Network (RWDN) and coordinator of Free Rohingya Coalition, FRC RWDN, the first Rohingya women’s led organising in Malaysia, was founded in December 2016. It is self-funded and aims to empower women by harnessing their abilities and by providing them with opportunities to be leaders. This is done by organising classes for women consisting of general education, education. In 2019, she was nominated as Malaysia's candidate for the US Department of State's International Women of Courage award. The award is presented by the US Department of State to acknowledge women around the world who have shown courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment.

 

Virtual Event Details
This event will be livestreamed on YouTube Live. Attendees registered for this event (link below) will receive a reminder for the livestream fifteen minutes before the event along with a link to the YouTube page where you can participate in the live chat and ask questions during the event.

Registration Closed