Virada Somswasdi, women’s rights activist is amongst the first group of women from across the world to be honored in the US government’s first International Women of Courage Award.
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, inaugurated the award to give accolade to the world’s female leaders.
Associate Professor Virada was among 82 women selected by US embassies around the world.
US Ambassador Ralph Boyce handed the award to Virada, the founder of the Women’s Studies Centre at Chiang Mai University. She was commended for two decades of courage and leadership.
Virada is president of the Foundation on Women, Law and Rural Development, which she established in 2000 to promote the creation of organizations to provide legal training to women from rural areas and ethnic minorities.
Presently, she is campaigning to protect women’s rights under the new Thai constitution.
Her books include ‘With Hindsight’, ‘Heading Forward’ and ‘Domestic Violence against Women: Focusing on Masculinity and the Male Perpetrators’.
She has also helped establish the Lao-Thai scholarship program on gender and health equity.
She is involved with numerous bodies, including the Asia-Pacific Coalition against Trafficking in Women and she works to increase female participation in politics across the region.
