Social MovementsVideos

Iranian-British journalist and filmmaker Sahar Zand reflects on memory and explains how hair-cutting became a visible gesture of mourning and solidarity in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.

Omani journalist and women's-rights advocate Rafiah Al Talei starts from an election defeat to examine barriers to women's political representation and the symbolic burden placed on female candidates.

Drawing on Black feminist and disability-justice traditions, two Level Up organizers define collective care as movement infrastructure rather than a benefit added after political work.

Aymara feminist thinker Julieta Paredes examines patriarchy as a historical relation and asks how shared life, bodies and community can become sites of transformation.

In this TED@BCG talk, gender and climate researcher Zineb Sqalli critiques the gender-neutral framing of climate policy and reveals how it often perpetuates inequality. She highlights Vienna’s gender-equal urban planning as a model and calls for climate strategies that intentionally integrate gender equity at every stage.

Indonesian conservationist Farwiza Farhan shows how women rangers in Aceh use local knowledge, collective patrols and community forestry permits to protect the rainforest and water their village depends on.

Ivorian lawyer Brigitte Mensah continues legal work and disability-rights advocacy after losing her sight, prompting questions about accessible voting, legal services and public institutions.

Loretta J. Ross distinguishes public call-outs from invitations to dialogue: the latter can support accountability and change, but must not make harmed people responsible for endless patience and emotional labor.

Zambian Feminists founder Situmbeko Wambulawae considers how feminism can make space for women and girls to share sensitive experiences and find connection.

An IIS-UNAM gathering brings Indigenous and Afro-Mexican voices into conversation about movements, colonial memory and women’s political participation in contemporary Mexico.

Maya Q’eqchi’ and Xinka feminist and healer Lorena Cabnal connects bodily autonomy and land defense with collective healing and women’s political agency.

Mexican journalist and activist Verónica Villalvazo explains the daily work of documenting feminicide and accompanying families when official institutions allow victims to disappear twice.

At TEDxJohannesburgWomen, Pumla Gqola recalls encountering feminism amid South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle and considers how joy and imagination sustain collective action.

Feminism in India founder Japleen Pasricha offers an accessible movement history while arguing that contemporary feminism must confront caste, class, sexuality, religion, and digital power together.

Tarana Burke traces Me Too from community organizing in 2006 to the global hashtag, centering survivor support, care after trauma and work beyond the media cycle.

In this TEDWomen talk, Ai-jen Poo frames domestic workers, nannies, caregivers, and cleaners as invisible infrastructure and argues for rights, wages, and dignity.

Shad Begum recounts organizing women in Pakistan’s conservative northwest, showing political voice as a long process of education, local service, family negotiation, and entry into decision-making spaces.

Kichwa activist Nina Gualinga connects Amazon defense to Indigenous women’s leadership and to the gendered intimidation faced by those who protect territory from extraction.

Judith Heumann connects her struggle for education and public participation with the Section 504 protests, showing how collective organizing turns a legal promise into an enforceable right.

Argentine sex-worker organizer Georgina Orellano moves from a schoolyard story about her son to questions of stigma, collective organization and labor rights.

Sisonke Msimang challenges the comforting belief that empathy produced by storytelling is itself political action, asking audiences to reconnect narrative with facts, plans, and collective responsibility.

Malawian activist Memory Banda connects one girl’s refusal to collective organizing, local bylaws, and national legal reform against child marriage and coercive initiation practices.

Manal al-Sharif recounts how filming herself driving turned an ordinary act into a campaign against Saudi Arabia’s system of gendered mobility and guardianship.

Shabana Basij-Rasikh recalls secret schools under the Taliban’s first regime and asks how girls’ right to learn depends on families, women teachers and collective support.

Using regional survey data, Dalia Mogahed challenges media stereotypes about the Arab uprisings and examines how demands for dignity, accountable government, religion, and women’s rights coexist.

Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee argues that girls do not need abstract praise but sustained investment, truthful education, and adults willing to transfer opportunity and power.