Dr. Rubina Feroze Bhatti
Our host, Jenni Prisk, interviews Dr. Rubina Feroze Bhatti, a human rights activist who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She is known for protecting the rights of women who are targets of honor killings, acid attacks and other forms of violence in her native Pakistan.
Excerpt from Interview
“Being a woman, I realized I should respond if there is some injustice, or some inequality…”
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Biography of Dr. Rubina Feroze Bhatti
Rubina Feroze Bhatti, born into a Christian family in the majority Muslim country of Pakistan, protects the rights of women who are targets of honor killings, acid attacks and other forms of violence. She is a founding member and general secretary of Taangh Wasaib Organization (T.W.O), a rights-based development group working for communal harmony and equality through its many programs addressing issues of violence against women, religious intolerance, sectarianism and discriminatory laws and policies against women and minorities. Bhatti trains women’s groups to report on violence against women, supports victims with counseling and legal aid and works with media to bring attention to these issues.
Bhatti also has established educational and healthcare facilities for children working in Pakistan’s carpet-weaving industry, written scripts for theater productions on human rights and peace issues that were performed throughout the Punjab and North West Frontier Provinces, and in 2005, was selected as one of the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The interview takes place at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego where Bhatti was in residence in 2009 Women PeaceMaker in the Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ).
More About The IPJ Women PeaceMakers Program
Since 2003, the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego has welcomed four women peacemakers each year from around the world.
The women reside at the University of San Diego Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies for two months and share their stories which are documented by four Peace Writers. While the women are in residence, “they have opportunities to exchange ideas and approaches to peacemaking and justice, which helps increase their capacity to participate in conflict resolution and peace building efforts.”