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Women Around the World: Shreen Saroor · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, the Sanny and Samantha and welcome to Stephane. Never
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  Speaker 1: told your protection of I Heart Radio. And we are
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  Speaker 1: back with our Women Around the World series. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know why I say that, like we've taken a break.
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  Speaker 1: It's every week, but you know, here we are. But
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  Speaker 1: you know what, it's been a bit of a rough
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  Speaker 1: week for us in the United States, so we wanted
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  Speaker 1: to take some time and find a moment to celebrate,
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  Speaker 1: including the fact that we've been doing these weekly Women
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  Speaker 1: Around the World series for a year and what two
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  Speaker 1: or three months now? Yeah, yeah, I think you're right,
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  Speaker 1: because I think it's March we started, right, we were
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  Speaker 1: like we were going to expand and we want to
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  Speaker 1: go beyond and let's talk about women that we typically
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  Speaker 1: don't talk about, or people who are film and we
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  Speaker 1: just really want to celebrate what they're doing and what
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  Speaker 1: they've been doing and then acknowledge their work and hopefully
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  Speaker 1: bring some light to their work. And you know what,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's been a joy to search out these people, right,
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  Speaker 1: it has. I only hesitate because it was your amazing
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  Speaker 1: idea to let my my love flourish and to find
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  Speaker 1: fictional women who I want to talk about and I
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  Speaker 1: think in my corner of the world they are not
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  Speaker 1: unheard of, but I know for some people they might
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  Speaker 1: be new to you. And I think that some of
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  Speaker 1: them we've shown a light on have been kind of
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  Speaker 1: rarer talked about characters. Some of them have been huge characters.
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  Speaker 1: Um So I feel like I love it. It was
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  Speaker 1: the next idea, thank you. But our experiences are vastly
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  Speaker 1: different because I do usually have pretty easy access to information,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's in my brain, are right, Wikipedia page, Star
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  Speaker 1: Wars wiki or whatever. It is, Like, I can find stuff,
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  Speaker 1: but you have a bit of a harder lifts. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, coming in trying to find like, uh, specific
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  Speaker 1: types of people who are doing this incredible work has
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  Speaker 1: been interesting, especially because yes, when it comes to us media,
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  Speaker 1: it's really hard to find more outward views. We are
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  Speaker 1: very centric, which is sad for me, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's been a good challenge. But I do say like,
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  Speaker 1: I love that we have both the commendations of real
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  Speaker 1: life people and heroes as well as fictional because the
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  Speaker 1: fictional are the representations that we really drastically need and
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  Speaker 1: want and hope to see in real life, not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: like space fighting. Maybe I don't know, maybe two d
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  Speaker 1: yards down the road when we're far gone that exists,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, like it is nice to see because
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  Speaker 1: because it brings that level of for the longest, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not having any of that representation for women in general,
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  Speaker 1: and then for marginalized communities, and then just people who
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  Speaker 1: identify as completely different and having these niche loves and lives.
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  Speaker 1: And yes, you are a walking encyclopedia of these amazing characters.
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  Speaker 1: So I love that you bring that too, especially because
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  Speaker 1: people the fan bases, they have an attachment that is
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  Speaker 1: beyond they do and I speak as someone who does, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And I think it goes back to you. Like a
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  Speaker 1: lot of stuff we've talked about that can range from
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  Speaker 1: very kind of more serious things to very lighthearted things.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the power of good storytelling, is if
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  Speaker 1: you can connect with somebody and that can be healing.
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  Speaker 1: Like as I've said, for me, it was easier for
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  Speaker 1: me to deal with trauma, my own trauma through a
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  Speaker 1: fictional person, right, And that is powerful and that is
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  Speaker 1: why this representation matters. But that's why I like, people
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  Speaker 1: love these characters, um and they just resonate, and I
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  Speaker 1: think that's really beautiful right. And on top of that, yes,
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  Speaker 1: when we talk about these amazing people that have created
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  Speaker 1: change or continue to create change, or continue to advocate
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  Speaker 1: UH for for us as a community within UM this
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  Speaker 1: marginalized being a woman, or being a person of color,
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  Speaker 1: or being in the queer community or disabled, any of
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  Speaker 1: those communities that bring it together and just really have
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  Speaker 1: a moment to see heroes, true life heroes who is
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  Speaker 1: passionate about their work. And I know not that I'm
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  Speaker 1: one of them, but just working in a service industry
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  Speaker 1: or social service field, it really is stressful and a
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  Speaker 1: lot of pain and aches and most most of the
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  Speaker 1: times you rarely see the good. And so we wanted
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  Speaker 1: to take this time to acknowledge the good that they
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  Speaker 1: are doing UH and to acknowledge it worldwide because they
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  Speaker 1: deserve that recognition while they're still with us UM, and
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  Speaker 1: we don't want to wait too late to let them
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  Speaker 1: know how amazing and how big their contribution truly is
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  Speaker 1: and how we see it and we think them and
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  Speaker 1: get them most flowers virtus. Yes, so much. Yes, And
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  Speaker 1: when these hard times, especially when it feels like the
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  Speaker 1: world is attacking and I want to say the world
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  Speaker 1: to say, uh, the powers that be at this point
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  Speaker 1: and gone those in powers seem to be attacking the
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  Speaker 1: rights of women and film and queer and the marginalized
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  Speaker 1: in general. It's hard to sometimes get to the good parts,
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  Speaker 1: and we want these times to be the good parts
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  Speaker 1: and to recognize people are doing this work, and they've
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  Speaker 1: been doing this work, and we have so many examples
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  Speaker 1: of people doing this work, and we have generations coming
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  Speaker 1: forward who are also doing this work and picking up
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  Speaker 1: right where other people have left off. And it's gorgeous. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And it's really really inspiring because it every every story
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  Speaker 1: you bring on here, Smith, I feel like I'm always
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  Speaker 1: kind of exhausted for them. Yeah, because it's hard. Like
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  Speaker 1: it's hard and often dangerous, and a lot of times
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  Speaker 1: there's some traumatic experience behind in their life story, are
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  Speaker 1: multiple traumatic experiences in their life story, and it can
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  Speaker 1: feel like I've done all this work and now it's
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  Speaker 1: going backwards. But it does matter. It matters so much,
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  Speaker 1: um and to have that strength of will. I'm just
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  Speaker 1: guys were recognizing it. Yes, we wanted to talk about
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  Speaker 1: someone who has been and like we said, continues to
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  Speaker 1: advocate for the marginalized communities around the world. As well
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  Speaker 1: as for advocating for peace, which sometimes I forget, like,
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  Speaker 1: oh yeah, it's just that general concept of peace which
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  Speaker 1: is so out there. But we are celebrating the works
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  Speaker 1: of Shrine Sara of Sri Lanka Um and just a
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  Speaker 1: bit on her bio bography. Sor was born in Minar
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine with our Muslim family in a
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood where Tumil's and Muslims resided together, but all that
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  Speaker 1: would change after the violent death of a deer family
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  Speaker 1: friend who was killed by a militant group that forced
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  Speaker 1: many Muslim families out of the town. In n and
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  Speaker 1: her family were forced to flee along with seventy five
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  Speaker 1: thousand other Muslims when war hit their community. Uh Sor
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  Speaker 1: and her family were forced to stay at a refugee
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  Speaker 1: camps with other displaced families, and at the refugee camp,
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  Speaker 1: she joined her father, who set up a community organization
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  Speaker 1: to assist other refugees. He helped raise funds and also
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  Speaker 1: helped teach Saroor the different strategies to organizing grassroots efforts.
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  Speaker 1: At the age of twenty one, her father had died
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  Speaker 1: um leaving her to take up his leadership role and
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  Speaker 1: support her family by getting a job as a stockbroker,
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  Speaker 1: but she would soon continue her advocacy on a larger scale.
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  Speaker 1: So Roora completed her education at the University of Colombo
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  Speaker 1: in which included feminist studies by the way Um, and
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  Speaker 1: soon began her career and advocating for peace and working
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  Speaker 1: of the rights of all in her community. Upon returning
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  Speaker 1: to her home, Sor started working with women's rights activists
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  Speaker 1: in her community who were seeking the rights to education
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  Speaker 1: as well as the simple human rights in general. She
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  Speaker 1: soon started the Manar Women's Development Federation, which started her
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  Speaker 1: path to becoming a quote defender of women's rights. According
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  Speaker 1: to her interview with You and Women dot org, and
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  Speaker 1: that was only the beginning. After watching countless women disappear
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  Speaker 1: and struggle during this time, she noticed that the women's
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  Speaker 1: activist group she worked with starts, slow down and essentially disappear.
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  Speaker 1: So she began the Women's Action Network or the w
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  Speaker 1: a N in two thousand and nine. As it is
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  Speaker 1: written for a Shoka dot Org, which is a fellow
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  Speaker 1: of she first started it quote recognizing the high possibility
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  Speaker 1: of a dying movement, Sharine is creating the next generation
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  Speaker 1: of young women leaders from representing all identities Muslim, Tamil,
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  Speaker 1: Sinnalese that are working together to take the women's movement
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  Speaker 1: in Sri Lanka from a mere survival mode to the
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  Speaker 1: next level of advocating a larger women's rights. Yes uh
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  Speaker 1: Siroa gathered nine women's collective throughout the country to help
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  Speaker 1: provide platforms, mentors, and to address women's issues across the nation.
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  Speaker 1: And w a N quote not only firefights individual cases
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  Speaker 1: against traditional women's issue like domestic violence and war related
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  Speaker 1: issues like enforced disappearance and resettlement, but also advocates at
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  Speaker 1: a national and international level for policy reforms. W a
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  Speaker 1: N is located in Sri Lanka and is a quote
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  Speaker 1: collective of women's groups that empowers and advocates for women
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  Speaker 1: and women's survivors of war, violence and other injustices and
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  Speaker 1: with the efforts the organizations have made. One of the
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  Speaker 1: big proponents to the organizations is to teach and mentor
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  Speaker 1: young activists to become leaders themselves. So Roor is a
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  Speaker 1: fierce advocate in including young women and their organizations and
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  Speaker 1: activism so they are quote always aware of the state
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  Speaker 1: of human rights in their country and take up these
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  Speaker 1: issues when they grow up. And with that, she also
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  Speaker 1: pushes to empower survivors as well, and in You and
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  Speaker 1: in reviews, or says, a key principle that we abide
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  Speaker 1: by is not to take up the place of survivors
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  Speaker 1: or to speak on their behalf, but to empower them
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  Speaker 1: in their own struggle for justice, and to help them
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  Speaker 1: only if there is a space to do so, and
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  Speaker 1: if they want us to. Our intent is not to
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  Speaker 1: build an organization, but a women's rights movement, and it
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  Speaker 1: is our strong belief that is only by survivors coming
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  Speaker 1: together that strong movements are birth. We do not own
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  Speaker 1: the movements, we do not hold onto them, and we
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  Speaker 1: certainly do not take credit for them. This makes Women's
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  Speaker 1: Action Network a proud collective of women with their own
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  Speaker 1: story interwoven with the issues of women in a postwar context,
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  Speaker 1: along with their experiences of resistance and aspirations for the future. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I love that. I love that whole idea in general.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, she as being actually from Sri Lanka during
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  Speaker 1: the war times as well as being refugee, understands the
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  Speaker 1: power it is to allow for the survivors to do
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  Speaker 1: it on their own pace. And I think that's overall
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  Speaker 1: for anybody who's gone through any type of trauma, and
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  Speaker 1: she makes to hold she makes sure to hold did
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  Speaker 1: that in her policies and in her work as an activist,
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  Speaker 1: and that's something we need to remember. And her work
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  Speaker 1: has drawn of course, a lot of accolades and recognitions,
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  Speaker 1: including the two thousand eight Voices of Courage Award from
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  Speaker 1: the International Rescue Committees Women's Refugee Commission in her work
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  Speaker 1: for the internally Displaced Women, the two thousand and eleven
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  Speaker 1: and Peace Award, the twenty seventeen Franco German Prize for
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  Speaker 1: the Human Rights and the Rule of Land, and in
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  Speaker 1: this that same year became the Ashoka Fellow that we
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  Speaker 1: talked about earlier, which we've we've mentioned a few Shoka Fellows,
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  Speaker 1: so and she was also featured in a two thousand
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  Speaker 1: four documentary film called Leading the Way to Peace Women Peacemakers.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, thank you so much, so or for your
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  Speaker 1: amazing work and just seeing her being recognized and continuing
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  Speaker 1: in this fight is so powerful. It is, and I
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  Speaker 1: think we've seen a lot we being symanthanized specifically, but
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  Speaker 1: in a larger scales well, the power of women in
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  Speaker 1: these organizations, in these activist roles, and in government, and
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  Speaker 1: how that it's so important, and how including voices of
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  Speaker 1: people who are going to be most impacted or people
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  Speaker 1: who have long been ignored UH is incredibly vital to
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  Speaker 1: building these healthier societies. So thank you so much, flowers
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  Speaker 1: to you. We look forward to seeing what else you accomplish.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, as always, if you have any suggestions of
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  Speaker 1: people or organizations we should shout out in these segments,
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  Speaker 1: please let us know. You can emails at Stephanie your Mom,
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  Speaker 1: Stuff that I Hurt mea dot com. You can pat
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  Speaker 1: us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and stuff What Never Told You. Thanks it's always to
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: our super producer Christina, an amazing woman as well. M
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening stuff on ever told
• 12:44
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