Welcome to our 11th #aroundtheworld! Today, we will be discussing 5 female Asian Revolutionaries who are changing their fields. Enjoy our article on Faiza Saeed, Sara Ahmed, Yuri Kochiyama, Patsy Mink and Helen Zia!
Faiza Saeed
Faiza Saeed was born in Walnut Creek, California, and is of Pakistani descent. She majored in molecular biology and economics at University of California, Berkeley. Faiza J. Saeed is an attorney in the field of mergers and acquisitions, and is currently the presiding partner of the prominent law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Ms. Saeed is known for her close relationships with such industry titans as Jeff Bewkes, Howard Schultz and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executives of TimeWarner, Starbucks and DreamWorks, respectively.
Sara Ahmed
Ahmed was born in Salford, England. She has a Pakistani father and English mother, and emigrated to Adelaide, Australia, with her family in the early 1970s.
Sara Ahmed is a British-Australian scholar whose area of study includes the intersection of feminist theory, lesbian feminism, queer theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism. In 2017, Ahmed received the Kessler Award for contributions to the field of LBGTQ studies from CLAGS, CUNY. Ahmed gave a talk, "Queer Use," when accepting this award. In 2019, Ahmed was awarded an honorary doctorate from Malmö University, Sweden. She gave a lecture, "Feminists at Work: Diversity, Complaint, Institutions" as honorary doctor.
Yuri Kochiyama
Mary Yuriko Nakahara was born on May 19, 1921, in San Pedro, California, to Japanese immigrants Seiichi Nakahara, a fish merchant entrepreneur, and Tsuyako (Sawaguchi) Nakahara, a college-educated homemaker and piano teacher.
Yuri Kochiyama (河内山 百合子, Kōchiyama Yuriko, May 19, 1921 – June 1, 2014) was an American civil rights activist. Influenced by her Japanese-American family's internment, her association with Malcolm X, and her Maoist beliefs, she advocated for many causes, including black separatism, the anti-war movement, reparations for Japanese-American internees, and the rights of people imprisoned by the U.S. government for violent offenses whom she considered to be political prisoners.
Patsy Mink
Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born on December 6, 1927 at the sugar plantation camp, Hāmākua Poko, near Paia, on the island of Maui. She was a sansei, or third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants. Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. In 1964, Mink ran for federal office and won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, and also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii. She served a total of 12 terms (24 years), split between 1965-77 representing Hawaii's at-large and second congressional district from 1990-2002.
Helen Zia
Zia was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1952 to first generation immigrants from Shanghai. At five years old, she began working in her parent's floral novelty business. She entered Princeton University in the early 1970s as a student in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She was a member of its first graduating class of women.
Helen Zia is a Chinese-American journalist and activist for Asian American and LGBTQ rights. She is considered a key figure in the Asian American movement. She has also been outspoken on issues ranging from civil rights and peace to women's rights and countering hate violence and homophobia. In 1997, she testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the racial impact of the news media. She traveled to Beijing in 1995 to the United Nations Fourth World Congress on Women as part of journalists of color delegation.
Who are some powerful Asian American women in your life? Comment below!
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