STAND, Bringing African Women’s Rights into the Modern Age
For eleven years, renowned feminist and gender equality advocate, Dr Hilda Tadria had worked with girls and young women as well as boys through her organisation MEMPROW ( Mentoring and Empowerment Programme for Young Women), which she founded with her husband in 2008. Part of the programme’s success has come about through encouraging them to tell their stories and move on. As a result, they have bloomed with self- confidence and positive self esteem. When Dr. Tadria was asked (many times), ” How have you done it in your personal life, working with challenges to trying to change the entrenched negative norms and thinking about women?” this memoir, STAND, was born. She realised that sharing her own life experiences, which include standing up for her rights and those of other women and challenging the accepted gender norms around a woman’s place and patriarchal negative norms, was a responsibility.
STAND was written to share her feminist journey and experiences. It describes how she has been challenged and stood firmly for her rights. It explores the forces that enabled her to defy patriarchy, a system that sets up women to collude in self-oppression or to fail. To Dr. Hilda Tadria. It does not matter whether these young women and girls have all that it takes to stand or not. This is a book for all those who, like her, are struggling to stand for their rights and gender justice. And it is for those on the edge, who are trying to take a firm stand, to help them be aware of the systemic ways in which women are oppressed, so as not to fall off.
