Women of the World’s founder and president, Samira Harnish, spoke tonight at the new
Leonardo Museum in downtown Salt Lake City, during the program for the rededication of Salt Lake City’s commitment to human rights. Aside from Samira’s speech, the program contained the dedication of Salt Lake City’s commitment to Human Rights by Mayor Ralph Becker, the granting of two awards for Human Rights commitment including a group award to Utah Health and Human Rights and an individual award given posthumously to Civil Rights Attorney Brian Barnard.Samira’s comments stuck with the presenters after her. She called for Utah to embrace the human rights of its refugee women neighbors by “giving them a voice and being their friend.” This sentiment was echoed throughout the speeches and the award ceremony as each new speaker turned to the examples in their own work to improving the lives of the disenfranchised. You can see a brief video snippet of her speech on the Women of the World Youtube channel.Prior to the event, Samira was interviewed on the radio program “Cultural Connections” where she and the rest of the panelists gave their thoughts on how human rights could impact their communities and the struggles they still need to overcome. You can here this program by going to the Cultural Connections podcast for December 16, 2012.https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf