Hey vinas! Welcome to our new series, Fearless Femme Fridays. Each week, we’ll be rounding up a list of badass women who gave us major inspo. We’re giving a huge 🙌 to these amazing females. Meet them below!
ROOHI SAHAJPAL & NIKKI GILL
Journalists and recent co-founders of a networking collective, Roohi Sahajpal and Nikki Gill created Didihood–a space for South Asian women working in creative industries to work together, connect, and help women all over follow their dreams in the workplace. Additionally, they aim to encourage women support one another and to create networking opportunities for those in the media, music and art industry. A fun fact about the company name, “didi” is the Hindi word for sister!
“It’s a great way to encourage more people, more South Asian women, to get into these fields,” said Gill, “You see everyone talking openly. The networking is happening so organically,” said Roohi in an interview.
Read more about Didihood here!
CYNTHIA NIXON
Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon is a candidate for governor of New York. Even though Cynthia is new to campaigning and doesn’t have any government or executive experience, she’s been politically active for most of her life. Cynthia has a life-long love for New York and wants to continue to fight for better schools, LGBTQ equality, reproductive freedom, disability rights and immigrant rights, to name a few. And we applaud her for all of that!
“Both the media and the Democratic establishment, they’re not quite getting this moment that we’re in and how hungry people are for a change,” Cynthia said in an interview with The New York Times.
Read more about Cynthia and her campaign here.
SERENA WILLIAMS
After scoring her first major win since the birth of her daughter, Serena Williams’ sleek black catsuit was what made headlines. French Tennis Federation President Bernard Giudicelli said, “the combination of Serena this year, will no longer be accepted. You have to respect the game and the place,” according to an article from Vox.
Despite the fact her catsuit made her feel like a “warrior princess” and a “superhero,” it was also worn to be functional–to help keep her blood circulation going.
Even though everyone expected Williams to go back to traditional tennis gear, she instead chose to wear an asymmetrical bodysuit with a tutu, as well as compression fishnet tights to help with blood clots. Stylish and smart. We always are backing you up, Serena!
Read all about the tutu here!
ANITA JALIL
After nearly three years of asking her dad for permission to start vlogging, Anita Jalil started sharing her story about what it’s like growing up as a woman in Gwadar. She’s Gwadar’s first female vlogger because creating and sharing videos as a woman is not something that’s accepted. In fact, Jalil receives death threats from people who perceive career-oriented women as a threat. That hasn’t stopped her though, and just after a few months of vlogging, Jalil now has more than 14,000 subscribers.
“I would just not give up. I would not eat for two nights straight, however, every morning I would wake up with a renewed sense of vigour in my heart. I would show examples to my dad, of women who have done wonders in various fields despite odd circumstances, of empowered females who made a name for themselves irrespective of their backgrounds,” said Jalil in an interview with The News.
Her passion has ignited our fire, too.
Watch her vlogs here!
FIRST LIETENANT MISA MATSUSHIMA
First Lieutenant Misa Matsushima is the first woman to become a fighter pilot in Japan. She will be based at the Nyutabaru Air Base in Miyazaki Prefecture on the Air Self-Defense Force’s 5th Air Wing stationed on the Eastern Coast of Kyushu Island. Even though Japan started recruiting women for the military in 1993, they issued a ban on women becoming fighter jet pilots until 2015. That’s when Matsushima started her three-year training. She is only the first, and there are now three other women currently in training!
“I wish to continue to work hard to fulfil my duty–not just for myself but also for women who will follow this path in the future,” Matsushima said in an interview with The Telegraph India.
We are beaming from here to Japan! Good work, vina!
Come back next Friday and meet more kickass femmes. Until then, check out Hey! VINA to meet awesome vinas in your area.
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