International Women of Courage

International Women of Courage Awardees (from left) Facia Boyenoh Harris, Roya Sadat, Arbana Xharra, Quynh Nguyen, Fatou Baldeh and Agather Atuhaire

An investigative journalist from Kosovo shining a light on human-rights abuses; an acclaimed filmmaker from Afghanistan centering women's voices; and a transformative leader from The Gambia who is fighting to break a generational cycle of abuse.

These are women who have faced danger across the globe to take a stand for peace, justice, human rights and the empowerment of women and girls. They are all past honorees of the International Women of Courage (IWOC) Award, presented by the U.S. Secretary of State, which has recognized more than 190 women from 90 countries since 2007.

In honor of Women’s History Month, UCLA Anderson hosted an event on March 4 to honor and celebrate the IWOC awardees with the support of UCLA Alumni Affairs, the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, the International Institute, and American Women for International Understanding (AWIU).

Women of Courage Panel with Heather Caruso

Heather Caruso, UCLA Anderson School of Management faculty member, associate dean for inclusive excellence and faculty co-director of the Inclusive Ethics Initiative, said, “University communities like ours are so rich and vibrant; we are not meant to stand apart from the world's hardest challenges. We are meant to engage them — thoughtfully, rigorously and in partnership with those leading the work on the ground.”

UCLA Anderson created the IWOC campus visit program in 2024, supported by a longstanding relationship with the American Women for International Understanding. AWIU is a community of women whose mission is to build bridges of international understanding through connection and collaboration, and to empower women to become highly effective global leaders.

Cynthy Moffatt, MBA '88, an AWIU board member, past IWOC celebration chair and current advisor on IWOC programming and relations, shared the story of how the partnership began. Several years ago, she was invited to attend an IWOC celebration in Washington, D.C. through AWIU and became passionate about the program. She said, “Given my ties to UCLA, and the fact that my husband, Jim Moffatt, MBA '87, is on the Anderson board, I reached out to the dean at the time, Judy Olian, who was the first to support the celebration.” UCLA Anderson began sponsoring funding grants for the honorees and inviting students to attend IWOC events. She continued, “Heather Caruso and a few students were so inspired that they wanted to bring the honorees to campus. It’s grown from a sponsorship into a deep, mutual exchange between the University's expertise and these global leaders.”

This year's International Women of Courage event opened with small-group roundtables, bringing together UCLA leadership, faculty and staff to bridge the gap between academic research and grassroots international community work. Many of the IWOC awardees came from countries where it was rare for women to pursue a formal university education. To further their work, they needed to build a network of support. Their time at UCLA was designed to build connections with academics, scholars and activists.

Denise Pacheco, M.A. ’04, Ph.D. ’11, senior director of Alumni Diversity Programs & Initiatives, represented UCLA Alumni Affairs at the event and participated in the roundtable discussions. She said, “One of the most important threads that binds us as Bruins is our optimism and commitment to leading bold and courageous change in the world. Participating in events like this allows us to leverage the power of not only our Bruin community in Westwood, but that of our nearly 700,000 living alumni all around the globe in support of the incredible work of these honorees.”

The discussion groups were followed by a panel that featured three past IWOC awardees: Roya Sadat, an Afghan filmmaker whose boundary-breaking work inspires change; Arbana Xharra, an investigative journalist recognized for her reporting on extremism and human-rights abuses in the Balkans; and Fatou Baldeh, a human rights advocate who is a leading voice in the campaign to end gender-based violence.

Roya Sadat, 2018 IWOC awardee, shares her story.

The panel was moderated by Katelyn Choe, a recently retired foreign service officer. Choe began by reading the poem “Gate A4” by Arab American poet Naomi Shihab Nye about a chance meeting in an airport which becomes a true moment of connection. She told the gathered crowd, “This panel is about courage, but it's also about what happens around courage, the accumulation of steady acts that allow it to endure.”

Roya Sadat, 2018 IWOC awardee, spoke of ensuring that women's voices were part of the public record. She said, “My work comes with a heavy history, but at the same time it is entertainment. We invited people to talk about taboo things in our society, and it has opened a conversation between younger and older generations.” Sadat is the first woman director in post-Taliban Afghan cinema. Her feature film “A Letter to the President” was Afghanistan’s official submission to the 2018 Academy Awards.

Arbana Xharra, 2015 IWOC awardee, shared how she discovered the power of journalism while fleeing her country. “At the border, with the English that I could speak, I told the media what was happening in my country. At that time, I realized what it means to be a voice for the voiceless. What it means to be a journalist.” She has started a podcast, “Not Silent,” to amplify the voices of women in conflict zones around the world.

Fatou Baldeh, 2024 IWOC awardee, was named a 2025 Time Woman of the Year. She is the founder of Women in Liberation and Leadership, a survivor-led organization working to abolish female genital mutilation (known as FGM/C or cutting). This dangerous practice, rooted in tradition, creates a lifetime of risks and has impacted more than 230 million girls and women, mainly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Baldeh said of her work, “I advocate and educate against a harmful traditional practice deeply rooted in my culture. If we do not speak on this issue, it's never going to end. We must break the cycle.”

The collaboration between UCLA and IWOC honorees is fostering opportunities to create lasting change. After Baldeh visited UCLA in 2024 and 2025, she connected with global health advocate Dr. Aparna Sridhar, a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA. This meeting has grown into an ongoing collaboration to build interventions that will strengthen the fight to end female genital mutilation. The partnership is launching a health education project in Gambia, integrating FGM/C education into medical training to ensure future healthcare providers have the skills to eliminate the practice.

Pairing advocacy leaders with UCLA’s academic experts has resulted in numerous benefits. Moffatt said, “UCLA is a prestigious, global university with a vast range of disciplines. Whether an honoree is focused on medicine, social welfare or agriculture, UCLA has the corresponding expertise. We’re pairing global advocacy leaders with leaders in education."

Other past IWOC awardees also attended the day’s events including: Quynh Nguyen, 2017 awardee, a Vietnamese blogger whose commentary on corruption and injustice led to a prison sentence; Facia Boyenoh Harris, 2022 awardee, an attorney and journalist focused on gender issues in Liberia; Dr. Benafsha Yaqoobi, 2024 awardee, founder of The Organization of Rahyab for Rehabilitation Services for the blind (ORRSB) in Afghanistan; and Agather Atuhaire, 2024 awardee, a Ugandan journalist, lawyer and social justice activist.

Caruso emphasized the impact of bringing the women and their stories to UCLA. She said, “These are not distant stories. They intersect with the work of our university, with the responsibilities of leaders, with the choices that every one of us makes every day about where to direct our attention, our energy and our support.”

If you'd like to learn more or get involved with American Women for International Understanding, please visit https://awiu.org/.