BBC 100 Women has announced its 2022 list of the 100 most inspiring and influential women from around the world on which a number of women from the APAC region have been included.
The list celebrates the achievements of women internationally and incorporates both global leaders and grassroot volunteers. Many of the nominated women are included as they have been at the heart of conflicts taking place around the world in which they have been at the forefront – from demanding change in Iran to the female face of resistance in Ukraine and Russia.
As such, the theme for 100 Women 2022 is progress – and the season will take the opportunity to look back at what’s changed over the past decade, as well as highlighting the inspiring women who have made a difference.
With the list BBC marks the beginning of the BBC’s 100 Women 2022 season which BBC said is special as it is the tenth season as well as the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service and the centenary of the BBC.
The BBC’s 100 Women 2022 season encompasses a week of special interviews, documentaries, features and digital content across the BBC’s UK and international TV and radio services, BBC iPlayer and online.
Significant APAC region nominees include:
- Indonesian activist, Velmariri Bambari, who has been fighting for victims of sexual violence in Central Sulawesi. She has persuaded members of the local council to break with customary law and not impose fines on survivors of sexual abuse.
- Thai rap artist, Milli (Danupha Khanatheerakul), uses controversial lyrics to address issues such as unrealistic beauty standards and sexual consent. She raps in multiple languages and dialects, also incorporating slang from Thailand’s transgender community.
- Sri Lankan human rights activist, Sandya Eknaligoda, pursuits justice on behalf of missing families from across Sri Lanka’s diverse ethnic and religious communities. She became actively involved in campaigning for missing persons after her husband – investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians by the Sri Lankan army in the fight against the Tamil rebels – was kidnapped in 2009.
- South Korean political reformer, Park Ji-hyun, who anonymously helped bust one of South Korea’s biggest online sex-crime rings, known as the Nth rooms. This year she went public with her experience and went into politics, reaching out to young female voters.
- South Korean producer, Mie Kyung (Miky) Lee, a driving force behind K-pop’s global success and architect of the music festival KCON. She is also an executive producer of Parasite, the first foreign-language film to win an Oscar for best picture.
- Japanese climate campaigner, Kimiko Hirata, a fierce opponent of coal power who has spent nearly half her life fighting to wean Japan off its dependence on fossil fuels, and the first Japanese woman to win the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Other notable women on the BBC 100 Women list include American disability activist, Selma Blair, Greenlandic psychologist, Naja Lyberth, Madagascan climate entrepreneur, Marie Christina Kolo, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, Argentinian environmentalist, Sofia Heinonen, and Iranian ecologist, Niloufar Bayani.
– It’s wonderful to see this year’s list of 100 Women, and to be celebrating its tenth season. The women on this year’s list are all remarkable in what they have achieved and contributed to their communities and society, and I am proud that the BBC continues to do vital work by shining a spotlight on them and sharing their stories around the world through our first-class journalism and storytelling, said Tim Davie, BBC Director-General.
The BBC 100 have presented a special series of several high profile names in conversation such as music phenomenon Billie Eilish and Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenskyj, which will be available on BBC World News and https://www.bbc.com/news/world-48623037
Also arising in this year’s BBC 100 Women season are other interesting and groundbreaking documentaries and programmes;
Greenland’s lost generation.
Greenland has been rocked by a scandal revealing a Danish campaign to curb its growing Inuit population from the mid-1960s to late 1970s. Now being officially investigated, about 4,500 women had an intrauterine device, commonly known as coil, inserted – often against their will. BBC 100 Women goes to the heart of the scandal, meeting women who’ve begun piecing together reasons behind physical and mental trauma that they’d endured for decades in silence.
Honduras: Inside the abortion pill black market
As the US has tightened its reproductive laws after the Roe v Wade overturn, BBC 100 Women has travelled to Honduras – the world’s most restrictive country for female reproductive rights, where even the emergency contraception pill is outlawed – to take a look at the rise in the sale and use of black market ‘abortion pills’. In a country that has a ban on abortion in every instance, BBC 100 Women meets the women buying the pills, the men profiteering from them, the doctors dealing with the fallout, and the politicians reluctant to make progress.
The women fighting to be priests
There are over a billion Catholics around the world, and women have always played a significant role in the life of the Church – but have been excluded from the Catholic hierarchy. A number of devotees feel called upon to serve God as priests, but the Vatican has never allowed female ordination to priesthood. Now, there’s a growing movement to change this. BBC 100 Women follows two women who have been unofficially ordained in the US and Colombia. Is there a future for women priests? And can this change happen in our lifetime?
BBC 100 Women was established in 2013 as an annual series focused on a list of 100 inspiring and influential women. The list is supported by features, investigations and interviews highlighting the work of these women. In 2016 the 100 Women season was recognized with an Alliance for Women in Media Gracie award, after generating 30 million hits over a three-week season. The project was also a finalist for the US Peabody Awards 2017 and has scooped many other accolades.
Follow the link to view all nominees: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-75af095e-21f7-41b0-9c5f-a96a5e0615c1
