At Refinery29, we've had the privilege of meeting some pretty amazing women. We've spoken to a Saudi princess working to register other women to vote, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and a millennial who refuses to leave Afghanistan until everyone there can be part of a brighter future. In Cameroon, a child bride refuses to be silent about her plight. In Turkey, a refugee from Syria bravely rebuilds a life for her family.
As 2015 draws to a close, we decided to ask some of these extraordinary people for their best advice for young women. Ahead, their words of wisdom — gathered from Saudi Arabia to Zambia, Syria to Japan, South Africa to Russia — to help inspire you as you enter 2016.
Photo caption: Zein is a 25-year-old activist, teacher, and paramedic in Aleppo, Syria. She told Refinery29 that women should not be afraid to work on the front line of war if they believe in the cause. "The woman is protective, she’s powerful. She has worked in field hospitals, she’s participated in demonstrations, she's taught in field schools. We even have battalions of women…. So everything that the men did in the revolution, the women did as well. We have a slogan where we say that the revolution is feminine for us." Read Zein's full story here.
"I want to tell young girls around the world not to accept going into marriage quickly. Don’t accept it if you are forced into marriage. Go to school, do your studies, do an activity — like job training — but do not go into marriage and stay there without working."
—Mairamou, a former child bride who escaped from her abusive husband
PHOTO: COURTESY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S HEALTH COALITION.
"Even your family does not have a right to control your life. As a woman, I can’t imagine anyone knowing what is best for you as much as you do. Even if you can’t do anything, you should at least live however you want."
—Mira Obed, a Syrian refugee who fled war and violence to become a Turkish radio station's first female sound engineer
Photographed by: Tarek Turkey.
"At home, if you are a girl, you come last… As a girl, if someone says, 'Take this,' sometimes you will say, 'No, it is my brother who will take it.' But if we say, 'Take this,' when you are a girl, my advice is to stand up and try to take it. You have to be very brave."
—Danedjo Hadidja, the first woman in her village to refuse to be a child bride
Read Danedjo's full story of founding an organisation to help other girls to stay in school here.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S HEALTH COALITION.
"I would say if you want to do something, just do it. Even if it takes you a while, even if you have to do what you want part time. If it's a money issue, you can make it work. At least three of the many times I've been working overseas, I've had to go back to Minnesota and work as a nurse, because I'm still paying off my university loans. When your heart is really into something, you can make it work."
"As far as being a woman, 90% of the time I've found that as an advantage in conflict zones, so don't worry about that holding you back. Just be smart, tough, and dedicated to something you feel matters."
—Alex Potter, a freelance journalist covering Yemen's civil war
Photo: Courtesy of Alex Potter.
"I really believe in global sisterhood. We need to remember every day that some of the things that we are doing, we are not just doing them for ourselves, we are also doing them for women around the world. Some of our success is beyond just personal successes."
"…I have learned so much from my mentors that you cannot find in a textbook. So cultivating woman-to-woman friendships, looking out actively for women, is very, very important."
—Shaharzad Akbar, head of Open Society Afghanistan
Read Refinery29's full interview with Shaharzad on how she's using her organisation, Afghanistan 1400, to bring young Afghans into the political process here.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF SHAHARZAD AKBAR.
"It is so important to make friends with a lot of people around the world and plant the seeds of peace. I don't have a lot of money or political power, but I have the power to make friends with people around the world, and connect with them to create a world without war and a world without nuclear weapons."
—Toshiko Tanaka, a Japanese artist and activist who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima when she was 6 years old
Photo: Courtesy of Toshiko Tanaka.
"My advice to young women is: The so-called glass ceiling has been pierced and has been shattered. You can go as high as you want and as far as you want, as long as you keep going, as long as you don’t take yourself out of the race."
—Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times foreign correspondent
Photo: Courtesy of The New York Times.
"As a woman scientist, you want people to be talking about your research and the science and your cognitive capabilities as opposed to the size and shape of your body. That’s a huge issue in American society, I feel."
"…I would rather be known as a good researcher than a hot researcher…. That’s what we should be talking about, instead of the size and shape of our bodies."
— Hannah Morris, one of six daring female scientists who descended into South Africa's Rising Star Cave to discover the bones of Homo naledi, a new species of human
Photo: Courtesy of Hannah Morris.
"Be more engaged in what’s better for your country. There are lots of issues that you can participate in, and you can take a role in. Your role is not just to get married and have kids, as is the stereotype. You can see some of these women, Syrian women, who were always treated according to this typical picture, but now they’re doing everything."
—Ahed, a Syrian paramedic and pro-democracy protester
Read Ahed's full story of protesting against both the Assad government and Islamic State group in her home of Aleppo, Syria, here.
Photographed by: Erin Yamagata.
"You really have to believe you can do it, and you really have to have something to say. It takes a lot of soul-searching to find that, but if you understand these things and believe in the work you are doing, people will support you."
—Stephanie Sinclair, photojournalist and founder of Too Young to Wed, an organisation dedicated to ending child marriage worldwide
Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie Sinclair.
"I want young people to know that they can do something…. Everyone can do something, and that's using your heart to tell these people's stories. Individual stories touch people more than a history book ever could."
"But we don't often hear the personal story. We hear about the number of people who died, the statistics. But not the experience of the person. So everyone needs to keep talking, to keep sharing. Share it with your younger sister, or your parents, or the person sitting next to you — that is a good start."
—Miyako Taguchi, second-generation atomic bomb survivor and anti-nuclear activist
Photo: Courtesy of Miyako Taguchi.
"Face the challenge, no matter how hard it is, because something wonderful can come out of it, if you’re open enough to the opportunity that’s presented."
—Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, entrepreneur, and women's health advocate
Photo: Courtesy of Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud.
"I tell women and men, ‘Hit the road. Get on the road and travel.’ The only way to find a good story, to tell a good story, is by going places. You cannot sit in New York and write about Russia."
—Anna Nemtsova, winner of the 2015 Courage in Journalism Award
Photo: Courtesy of Anna Nemtsova.
"They say that women make up half of the community, but from my experience, I feel that they are the entire community. I personally feel that the woman is the person capable of truly achieving something. Don't give up, never depend on anyone. And don't say that the man is the one who is supposed to work hard; the conditions of war truly distance men from the field. The women are the ones who stand on the forefront."
—Najlaa Al-Sheikh, founder of the Honourable Women's Centre
Read how Najlaa became a "rebel mother," rising up against the Assad government in Syria, here.
Photographed by: Tarek Turkey.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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