Unfinished Revolution

"Simultaneously an inspiration and a call-to-action."
        ~ Publisher's Weekly, 3/5/12
"The Unfinished Revolution made me angry and hopeful in equal measure – angry because it charts the abuse of women's rights the world over, hopeful because it tells the stories of brave women and men who are bringing change." 
        ~ Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News  (UK)
"Conceivable solutions to confronting the continuous violations of women’s rights worldwide." 
        ~ Christy Turlington Burns (Every Mother Counts, July 2012) 


Women’s rights have progressed significantly in the last two decades, but major challenges remain in order to end global gender discrimination. Edited by Minky Worden, The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women's Rights (Seven Stories Press) tells the story of the struggle to secure basic rights for women and girls, including in the Middle East where the hopes raised by the Arab Spring are yet to be fulfilled.

With a foreword by Christiane Amanpour and published on International Women's Day, this anthology includes essays by more than 30 writers, activists, policymakers and human rights experts - including Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams. Contributors propose workable solutions to address ongoing rights violations including human trafficking and harmful traditional practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation. It is a book that shows the fight for women’s equality is far from over.

   Voices from Tahrir

 

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   UK edition: Policy Press
   Australian edition: Spinifex Press
       

 

Contributors:

              

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 Esra Abdel Fattah
Dr. Hawa Abdi
Christiane Amanpour
Charlotte Bunch 
Ellen Chesler 
Isobel Coleman		 Shirin Ebadi   
Georgette Gagnon 
Liesl Gerntholtz
Sharon K. Hom  
Aruna Kashyap 
Nadya Khalife 		 Mark P. Lagon
Gara LaMarche
Graça Machel
Marianne Mollmann 
Samer Muscati 
Agnes Odhiambo		 Elaine Pearson 
Sheridan Prasso 
Rachel Reid
Meghan Rhoad
Sarah J.Robbins
Mary Robinson

 

 Judith Sunderland
Sussan Tahmasebi
Dorothy Q. Thomas
Sarah Tofte
Gauri van Gulik
Anneke Van Woudenberg		 Nisha Varia
Janet Walsh
Christoph Wilcke
Jody Williams

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With photographs by Marcus Bleasdale, Susan Meiselas, Samer Muscati, Platon, Lorena Ros, Stephanie Sinclair, and Patricia Williams.

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Women's Rights Division main page

Articles, book reviews, press interviews

Katie Nguyen, "What will it take to finish the women's revolution?" TrustLaw (Thomson Reuters), February 27, 2012
Publisher's Weekly, "A powerful overview of contemporary women's issues...", Publishersweekly.com, March 8, 2012
Booklist, "A compelling, multicultural resource...", April 1, 2012, available online at booklistonline.org to subscribers
Chantaie Allick, "Arab Spring needs to be jolted by another revolution, says author," Toronto Star, April 27, 2012
Christy Turlington Burns, "Summer of Sisterhood: a Q&A with Minky Worden," EveryMotherCounts.org, August 3, 2012
Simon Vodrey, "Minky Worden Discusses The Unfinished Revolution," Ottawa Life Magazine, November 5, 2012
Sophie Read-Hamilton, "Review of The Unfinished Revolution," Newtown Review of Books, November 7, 2012

Chapter reprints/excerpts, op-eds by contributors

Dr. Hawa Abdi with Sarah Robbins, "Under Siege In Somalia," TheDailyBeast.com/Newsweek, August 7, 2011
Charlotte Bunch, "Women's Human Rights: From Slogan to Global Agenda," WeNews, March 11, 2012
Shirin Ebadi, "A Warning for Women of the Arab Spring," Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2012
Liesl Gerntholtz, "Planning A Better Future for Women," Trust Law, July 19, 2012
Graça Machel and Mary Robinson, "Our Child Bride Shame,"City Press (South Africa), January 20, 2013 (PDF)
Marianne Mollmann, "Fatal Consequences: Women, Abortion, and Power in Latin America,"  IPPF-WHR, March 13, 2012
Agnes Odhiambo,"The Paradox of Losing Life While Giving Life in Africa,"Inter Press Service Africa, May 25, 2012
Meghan Rhoad, "Violence On the Mexico-US Border," IPPF-WHR, May 14, 2012
Judith Sunderland, "Banning Muslim Veil Denies Women a Choice, Too," Women's eNews, September 23, 2012
Sarah Tofte, "A Needed Revolution: Rape and U.S. Justice," TheDailyBeast.com/Newsweek, April 9, 2012
Gauri van Gulik, "UK must send a clear message on domestic violence," The Guardian, May 19, 2011
Janet Walsh, "A year of progress in eliminating violence against women," CNN.com, November 25, 2012
Minky Worden, "For Saudi Judo Player, a Quick Loss But a Barrier Broken," The Daily Beast, August 3, 2012
Minky Worden, "In Saudi Arabia, women are confined by technology," The Washington Post, December 24, 2012

TV interviews

Canada AM (CTV), "The Struggle for Women's Rights," April 19, 2012 (interview with Minky Worden)
Council on Foreign Relations, "Arab Spring and Women's Rights," March 8, 2012 (interview with Minky Worden)


Radio interviews

SAFM (South Africa) interview with Agnes Odhiambo on maternal mortality in Africa , May 10, 2012

NPR interview with Liesl Gerntholtz on women's rights in the age of the Arab Spring , March 5, 2012
Worldview (WBEZ) interview with Minky Worden, "Women's Rights and the Arab Spring," April 2, 2012  
 

Book events

NEW YORK 3/5/12:  CFR roundtable with Isobel Coleman, Minky Worden, Mark Lagon and Hibaaq Osman (founder of Karama) - AUDIO
SAN FRANCISCO 3/6/12:  SF Committee book launch, together with the Global Fund for Women, with Musimbi Kanyoro, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women
TORONTO 4/18/12: Harbourfront Centre HRW Book Series with Minky Worden, Erna Paris and Rosemary McCarney
MUNICH 5/15/12: DLDWomen conference with Minky Worden and Gauri Van Gulik
FRANKFURT 5/16/12: book presententation with Minky Worden and Gauri Van Gulik, co-sponsored by Maecenia Frankfurter Stiftung für Frauen in Wissenschaft und Kunst, Stiftung Frauen in Europa, and Frauenrecht ist Menschenrecht FIM.e.v.
LONDON 7/4/12: launch of the UK edition by Policy Press at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, with Mary Robinson, Anneke Van Woudenberg and Minky Worden.
LOS ANGELES 9/23-9/24/12: book events hosted by HRW's Los Angeles office, with Minky Worden and Liesl Gerntholtz.
OTTAWA 10/29/12: book presentation at the Ottawa Writers' Festival, with Minky Worden.

 

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About the editor

As Director of Global Initiatives for Human Rights Watch, Minky Worden develops and implements international outreach and advocacy campaigns. She previously served as Human Rights Watch's Media Director, as an adviser to Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee in Hong Kong, and as a speechwriter at the Justice Department in Washington, DC. She is the editor of a new book on rights for women and girls globally, The Unfinished Revolution (Seven Stories Press, 2012).  She is also the editor of China's Great Leap (Seven Stories Press, 2008), and co-editor with Kenneth Roth of Torture (The New Press, 2005).  A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she speaks Cantonese and German.  Follow her on Twitter @Minkyshighjinks.  

 

Quotes about The Unfinished Revolution, excerpts of book reviews

"This important book brings together the stories of women across the world who still struggle for their rights, and their rightful place in their own societies. Some of their stories are heart-breaking, others inspiring and uplifting. They tell us about the "power of an idea" to bring about real change in the lives of women and girls, however painfully slow in some places, and visibly strong in others."
~ Lyse Doucet, presenter of BBC World News and World Service Newshour

"This compilation of commissioned essays, anecdotes, and photos presents a powerful overview of contemporary women's issues--from the unsettlingly enormous backlogs of untested rape kits in Los Angeles, to genital mutilation and child marriage in Kurdistan and Afghanistan--and the ongoing fight for women's rights around the world. Encompassing the voices of Nobel laureates (e.g., Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams), a Somali gynecologist, domestic workers, an Egyptian social media activist, and many more, this invaluable tome provides an introduction to women's rights as human rights, tracks some of the movement's successes, reveals many lingering problems, explores "The Next Frontier," and offers suggestions for further reading. While women have come a long way in the past century--especially in the U.S.--Minky Worden (Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch) and myriad contributors (men among them) show that women must unite as a whole in order to effectuate lasting, global change. Gara LaMarche--former vice president of the Open Society Foundations--maintains that 'there can be no social or economic justice, or human rights progress around the world, that does not have women and girls at the core.' While sociologically and academically relevant, this is a cohesive and eminently readable document that is simultaneously an inspiration and a call-to-action. Photos."
~ Publishers Weekly, March 8, 2012

"Inspired by the awarding of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize to three woman for their nonviolent battles 'for the safety of women and human rights,' MinkyWorden, of Human Rights Watch, gathered together essays assessing the progress of worldwide rights for women and girls since the UN’s human rights conferences in the 1990s. The ongoing global struggle consists of three distinct spheres: economic issues (human trafficking, property rights); violence against women and their health rights (including genital mutilation); and harmful traditions (religious clothing restraints, so-called honor crimes). Contributors begin with Eleanor Roosevelt’s 1958 warning that Cold War politics threatened “a doctrine of universal human rights transcending national sovereignty” and move forward to today’s unequal property rights for African women and violence against immigrant women in America. Diverse voices of hopeless, hopeful, and boldly determined women from around the world comprise a compelling, multicultural resource supplemented by copious endnotes, a reading list, and an index."
~ Booklist, April 1, 2012

"The Unfinished Revolution made me angry and hopeful in equal measure – angry because it charts the abuse of women's rights the world over, hopeful because it tells the stories of brave women and men who are bringing change. Essential reading for those who work in the field of human rights."
~ Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, Channel 4 News

"The Unfinished Revolution is an anthology edited by Minky Worden. More than 30 contributors, including writers, activists, human rights experts, policy makers, and Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams contributed to this work. This collection of essays proposes conceivable solutions to confronting the continuous violations of women’s rights worldwide, including human trafficking, traditional customs such as female genital mutilation and child marriage, and unequal societal standings."
~ Christy Turlington Burns, Every Mother Counts Book Club selection, July 2012

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