Herstory Revisited

‘I sat there surrounded by policemen. I was still a child, just sixteen years old, an uneducated, illiterate peasant fit only for minding cows, collecting dung and wiping the bottoms of my nieces and nephews. Why all this violence and hatred towards me…I began to wonder if there was some force in me they were all trying to crush, a force that made me retaliate, a force that drove me desperately to survive. I tried to comfort myself with the thought that being beaten and humiliated was better than suffering in silence, like the women in the villages…I resolved to hang onto this force that was a gift from Durga. I was still tearful and afraid like a child. I still needed my mother, I wanted tenderness and protection, and it seemed as though all I got was more violence. But I was learning to survive; even as I wished I was dead, I knew I would survive.’     Phoolan Devi  (1963 – 2001), popularly known as "Bandit Queen", was an Indian female rights activist,  band...

Josephine Elizabeth Butler (1828-1906) was an English feminist and social reformer. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture in British law, the abolition of child prostitution, and an end to human trafficking of young women and children into European prostitution. Josephine Grey was born on 13 April 1828 in Northumberland. She was the fourth daughter and seventh child of Hannah (née Annett) and John Grey, a land agent and agricultural expert, who was a cousin of the reformist British Prime Minister, Lord Grey. In 1833 John was appointed manager of the Greenwich Hospital Estates in Dilston, where John acted as Lord Grey's chief political agent. In this role, John promoted his cousin's political opinions locally, including support for Catholic emancipation, the abolition of slavery, and reform of the poor laws. Josephine completed her schooling at a boarding school in Newcastle upon Tyne. John treated his children ...

Hind al-Husseini (1916 – 1994) was a Palestinian woman notable for rescuing 55 orphaned survivors of the Deir Yassin massacre. Hind was born to the prominent al-Husseini family in Jerusalem, and was a cousin of the Palestinian military leader Abd al-Qader al-Husseini. She was active in several social work organizations. In the 1930s, Hind joined student unions and was a member of the Women's Solidarity Society. She completed social work courses and became headmistress of a Jerusalem girls' school. Later on in the 1940s, she became coordinator of the Arab Women's Union. In April 1948, near the Holy Sepulcher Church, al-Husseini found a group of 55 children. One of the children explained that they have no home to return to and that they had survived the Deir Yassin Massacre where the Irgun had killed their families and torn down their homes. They had managed to reach the old town in their sleepwear - exhausted, desperate, and barefoot. The Deir Yassin massacre took plac...