Sisters: Las Mariposas

The International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women takes place every year on 25th November. The date was chosen in honour of Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal, commonly known as ‘Las Mariposas’, three sisters from the Dominican Republic who were assassinated for their resistance against Rafael Trujillo, the then-dictator of the country.

Y is for… Yaa Asantewaa

Now an anti-colonial heroine and a role model for women and girls throughout Africa, Yaa Asantewaa was prepared to do whatever it took to protect her land and culture. As Queen Mother, she held a great deal of power in the relatively egalitarian Asante nation—power which she used to incite a war against one of the largest colonial forces in the world. It was not a war Asantewaa would necessarily win in body, but her actions and what they symbolised produced a type of victory out of defeat.