SonjaBe.com International Relations – Be Here | Be You | Be True

Written by Sonja Be Few people will stand against the will of the government and the cultural norms of a society. Few women have the courage to speak up against injustice and advocate for real change. Noorjahan Akbar and Anita Haidary are two of those rare and brave young women who have, despite adversity, challenged the societal customs of Afghanistan. In a country where women lack the safety, support and basic rights to succeed, Noorjahan Akbar not only felt a heavy responsibility towards Afghan women, she also saw an opportunity: the opportunity to address the issues of inequality, violence, sexual discrimination and lack of access to education in Afghanistan. With an uncooperative government, poor human rights conditions, and unenforced laws on the elimination of violence against women, one can only imagine the vast challenges that lay ahead of these women.  Despite the major obstacles, Read More »

Written by Rosa Owusu My mother always taught me that there are a lot of things life can strip you of, but one thing no one can ever take from you is your education and your mind. The mind is a very powerful being and entity. It is our job to keep it sharpened and alert. No one can do that for you but you. One of the ways we can do this is through the pursuing of higher education. As women, it is easy for us to make excuses for why we cannot or should not choose to fight for our goals, especially when it comes to education. Sometimes it’s an issue of where we are at in life. We have children, a husband and a household to run. Who has time for that? Other times it’s an issue of self-confidence. What if I fail? What if I’m not ... Read More »

By Nadia Buhna Burma, the once feudal society, colonized by the British Empire in the late 19th century, became independent in 1948. Soon after gaining independence, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (another name used for the country) was plunged into a decades-long civil war as a result of a military coup in 1962. The year 2008 brought the Burmese constitutional reform leading to a general election in 2010 in which the military-backed administration of President Thein Sein took power replacing the military junta. Claims that the elections were neither free nor fair were made by national and international bodies. The April 2012 result of the by elections in Burma, however, is a promising sign of a successful pro democracy movement in the country as National League for Democracy, led by Nobel  peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Read More »