Women's Vital Voices Power Global Initiatives

Written by Melinda Ennis Roughton Tuesday, January 18 2011

Powerful play about the power of voices Photo by Micky Wiswedel

Seven women sit on a bare stage ready to tell seven stories.

The stories are not their own. The women are actresses, and their words were written by seven award-winning playwrights. But the stories are true. They reveal the experiences of seven women who found the power of their own voices to be a potent weapon against injustice, corruption, and the violation of human rights in their communities and nations.

From New York City to New Delhi, the documentary theater production, Seven, has been acclaimed as a transformative experience wherever it has been performed. The production was created by Vital Voices, a nongovernmental organization that was established to identify, train, and empower emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs.

The play is just one of the many Vital Voices global initiatives designed to raise the voices and profiles of change-making women in communities around the globe. There are upcoming performances planned for Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Abuja, Nigeria; and Buenos Aires, Argentina, with dates to be determined.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization sprang from the Vital Voices Democracy, a Clinton administration initiative spearheaded by then First Lady Hillary Clinton as a nonpartisan effort. As its mission states, Vital Voices was established “to identify, invest in, and bring visibility to extraordinary women around the world by unleashing their leadership potential to transform lives and accelerate peace and prosperity in their communities.”

The organization has trained and mentored more than 8,000 emerging women leaders from more than 127 countries in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East since 1997, according to its website. After Vital Voices training in mentoring and development, these women return to their own communities ready to pay forward that investment, becoming mentors themselves who inspire new women leaders.

The stories of Seven, told through the powerful, ancient medium of theater, present an apt metaphor for the organization’s mission and results.

	Playwrights, actresses tell stories of survivors Photo by Micky Wiswedel

The number seven has a ubiquitous and common presence throughout the world’s history. It is symbolically prevalent in all of the seven major religions and is our universal barometer of time as we measure out the seven days of our weekly lives. It is a global equalizer that reminds us that for all of our differences, we are bound by humanity. And, although the seven stories told in the play come from women in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Guatemala, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, and Russia, they bespeak of women everywhere.

For Farida Azizi, if the voices of women are threatened, peace and development are impossible. In her native Afghanistan, those voices are seldom heard. Yet, Azizi speaks bravely for peace and gives voice to women in a diverse range of regions throughout her country. Gathering their stories, she has spoken to the United Nations, CNN, and the Washington Post, among others, speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves, or who have been silenced forever.

Harvard-educated Hafsat Abiola had little interest in politics until her own father, then president of her native Nigeria, was imprisoned after losing power to a corrupt dictatorship that refused to recognize his authority. Her mother also was arrested. Abiola now has dedicated her life to the freedom-fighting legacy of her parents.

Together or alone, the voices of the seven women foster a chorus of strength that grows exponentially.

Mu Sochua uses her voice as a member of the Cambodian Parliament to fight the trafficking of young women in sex trades. Inez McCormack, the first female president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in Northern Ireland, lifts her voice for forgotten workers who have struggled to be heard. And, Marina Pisklakova-Parker broke the heartbreaking silence of brutalized wives and children by establishing the first domestic violence hotline in Russia.

For some women, finding a voice could risk death. Annabella de Leon, a Congresswoman in Guatemala, faces constant death threats for daring to openly speak out against the discrimination and prejudice that disadvantage her nation’s indigenous population.

And for other women, finding a voice has defied death. When her brother was condemned for breaking cultural and religious codes by holding hands with a higher-caste woman, Mukhtar Mai of Pakistan was made to pay for his “crime.” She was gang raped and made to walk naked down the main street of her village; and for her “shame,” expected by the code to take her own life. Instead, she raised her voice for justice and took her attackers to court, earning international headlines for her daring and bravery.

That’s how it begins – one voice that dares to break the code. One voice that says, yes, I will help you leave your husband and his abuse. Or, one voice that pleads for peace in a war-torn land.

The women profiled in Seven stand for the voices everywhere that are empowering women to speak out against injustice and protect basic human rights. And as Vital Voices has proven, the ripple effect of just one voice can change the world.

For more information about Vital Voices, go to www.vitalvoices.org

A veteran of the marketing/advertising business, Melinda Ennis-Roughton is a writer specializing in women’s issues and film criticism, and she is the principal and owner of an Atlanta-based marketing firm called MelWorks Inc. She was a contributing film critic from 2004 to 2007 for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, where she wrote more than 100 film reviews and is still listed as a major critic on the website Rottentomatoes.com

While living in England from 1998 until 2001, she worked with Random House Books and was a contributing writer to Women Abroad magazine, Atlanta Magazine, and Cox Newspapers.

Her career highlights include the position of executive director/chief marketing officer (CMO) for Brand Atlanta, which was responsible for marketing the city under Shirley Franklin’s administration. She served as global CMO for Church's Chicken, supervising marketing direction from China to Costa Rica. Her past also includes marketing/consulting and business writing work with Sylvan Learning Centers, Emory Healthcare, and a 10-year term with Arby’s Restaurants. At Arby’s, she rose to the position of senior vice president, marketing, and was the first female vice president of the organization.

She has two sons, has been married for 27 years, and her passions are her family, film, and politics.