The world famous actress, filmmaker and advocate showed the audience a short video depicting the atrocities of war
Roja Heydarpour
04.24.15
Fresh off testifying before the U.N. Security Council, Angelina Jolie Pitt put the finishing touches on the 2015 Women in the World Summit Friday afternoon with an impassioned speech on women’s rights in war-torn regions like Syria and Iraq.
Jolie Pitt shared chilling images with the live audience of some of
the devastation she’s witnessed firsthand as Special Envoy of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees. Her remarks were preceded by a short
video showing heartbreaking footage of women and children refugees
displaced by the war and chaos that has gripped Syria and parts of Iraq
over the last four years.
“Who among us thought we’d see in the 21st century images of women
sold in cages, young girls sold in sex slavery?” Jolie Pitt asked the
audience. She pointed to the horrors that have played out amid the civil
war in Syria, which she said has fallen back 40 years in economic
terms, as a scourge that demands the immediate attention of policymakers
around the world. The lack of order there, she suggested, has forced a
whole generation out of school and resulted in a climate where
systematic rape by extremist groups and militia has become a tragic
norm.
Jolie Pitt said that advancing the rights of women and girls worldwide goes beyond being just a moral right.
“Women are still treated as secondary issues. It is still far too
easy and accepted for leaders to ignore uncomfortable truths, from FGM
(female genital mutilation) to child marriage. It is still the norm for
women to be excluded from the peace process. Women, we know, are the
first to be affected by war, and the last to be taken into account when
it ends,” she said.
“Everyone in this room knows an outcry is not enough. We need to
change attitudes around the world. We have a particular responsibility,”
Jolie Pitt said at the conclusion of her remarks.
Appointed a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2001, and UNHCR Special
Envoy in 2012, Jolie Pitt has carried out more than 40 field missions to
some of the most remote regions of the world to highlight the plight of
millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection. She
is also co-founder of The Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict
Initiative.
Jolie Pitt’s appearance capped three invigorating days at New York
City’s famed Lincoln Center that were filled with stories of firebrand
activists, self-sacrificing trailblazers, heartbreaking survivors, and
innovative solutions to problems plaguing the world.
Her appearance was the fifth visit the actress and advocate has made to the Summit in six years.
“Crimes against women are still treated as secondary issues." -Angelina Jolie closing #WITW with a critical message pic.twitter.com/ZXEb43VGnx
— Women in the World (@WomenintheWorld) April 24, 2015
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 24: Actress Angelina Jolie seen leaving the Women
in the World Summit at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2015 in New York
City. (Photo by Michael Stewart/GC Images)
Angelina Jolie will donate $200,000 to the Malala Fund, a fund set up by
Vital Voices Partnership to help activist Malala Yousafzai promote the
education of girls in Pakistan. “The Taliban shot Malala point blank in
the head and only made her stronger,” Jolie said at the fourth annual
Women in the World Summit Thursday night. Yousafzai, 15, appeared in a
video message speaking about her foundation, asking for donations to
“let us turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million.” Jolie's speech
closed out the first night of the summit, which also featured a call to
arms from Tina Brown
encouraging women to “lean on,” Barbara Walters urging action for the
women in Syria, and Christiane Amanpour moderating a panel on the next
generation of Malalas in Pakistan.
Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY9:21a.m. EDT April 5, 2013
Celebrities, activists and politicians headed to New York City Thursday for the fourth annual Women in the World Summit.
Hillary
Clinton will join Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Diane von Furstenberg,
Barbara Walters, Angelina Jolie and even Tom Hanks as featured speakers
in the annual conference which highlights global women's issues.
The
night started off with powerful video and story of Micheala DePrince,
once an orphan in Sierra Leone after her mother starved to death.
DePrince, now the youngest ballerina at the Dance Theater of Harlem
Company brought members of the audience to tears.
Meryl Streep
stood before the packed audience, getting a huge applause as soon as the
lights came up. She spoke about Ireland's activist and peacemaker Inez
McCormick, switching in and out of an Irish accent.
The audience went crazy when Streep dropped the F-bomb.
Barbara
Walters of ABC News took the stage to talk about "why we need to care
about the women in Syria." The audience erupted in applause to see
Walters who has recently been sick. She was in the news after taking six
weeks away from The View as she recovered from the chickenpox and a concussion.
Clad
in a tan suit, she sat on the stage with two other women: Dr. Mouna
Ghanem, an anti-regime activist, and Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for
Women international.
"We hear about women being raped," Walters
says. "Are they being raped by [Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's]
people? By the rebels? Is that really the case?"
Panelists weighed in on this and other issues in Syria, particularly America's role in the crisis.
"The
Americans lack of decision making of what to do in Syria has created a
political gap," Salbi says."America has to interfere actually, that
doesn't mean military. In the Middle East right now, women are the
battlefield. We need to care."
Walters calls out to the crowd: "What time is it? Do you know how much time we have left to talk?"
The audience loves her candid demeanor, juxtaposed with the tragic issues of rape in Syria she is interviewing the panel about.
Walters was escorted, arm-in-arm slowly off of the stage at the conclusion of the panel.
Charlie Rose, co-host of CBS This Morning,
interviewed Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, a legendary fighter against
apartheid. Ramphele spoke of forming a bold new political party.
"Once you reach full consciousness, you have no choice but to be a change agent," Ramphele says.
Ramphele
draws laughter from the crowd when she says, "Nelson Mandela is a
father figure to me. And like all father figures he uses hyperbole."
Rose asked her if she would be the president of South Africa.
"My duty is to focus on the future ... To make a future that would make Mr. Mandela proud," Ramphele says.
Oscar-winning
filmmaker Sharmeen Obaod Chinoy introduces two young women from
Pakistan: Khalida Brohi, founder and director of Sughar Women Program,
and Humaira Bachal, founder and president of the Dream Trust Foundation.
These young women are risking their lives for the rights of women and
girls in Pakistan.
"The women you see on stage is the narrative of Pakistan that you do not see," Chinoy says.
The
audience erupts in applause and laughter when young Khalida Brohi says,
"I think I was patient with the men who were resisting my education
because I knew one day they would be working for me."
The girls were the only ones to get a standing ovation.
Angelina
Jolie, closed out the first night of the summit by introducing
15-year-old Pakastani student activist Malala Youstafzai's new
initiative.
"In a brutal attempt to silence her voice, it grew
louder," Jolie says of the young girl who was shot at point blank range
by the Taliban on a school bus in Pakistan last October because of her
outspoken support for girls' education.
Malala announced through a
video at the summit the first grant for the Malala Fund, which supports
the rights to education for girls in Pakistan. The grant will support
the education of 40 girls aged 5-12.
"Let us turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls," Malala said in the video.
Jolie committed $200,000 more to the Malala Fund.
Jolie
added: "When in the hospital her father saw a poll of the most
influential people. Malala was number six. President Obama was number
seven."
The sold-out conference, hosted by Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, runs two days at the Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater.
Today's
schedule includes speeches from Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Eva
Longoria, Susan Rice, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and many more.
Last year's summit drew 2,500 women from around the globe.
Angelina Jolie attends the Women in the World Summit 2013 on April 4, 2013 in New York, United States. Credit: Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images
Angelina Jolie
was in New York City the evening of Thursday, April 4 -- but she had
Pakistan and other troubled parts of the globe on her mind. The
37-year-old actress and special envoy to the UNHCR joined the likes of Meryl Streep and Barbara Walters at the 2013 Women in the World gala, presented by Newsweek and the Daily Beast, at Lincoln Center.
Attending the event without fiance Brad Pitt,
the mother of six gave a radiant smile heading into the event, and wore
a loose, olive Saint Laurent dress and a sheer black sheath; the In the Land of Blood and Honey director
was also sporting a slightly light shade of brown. Also part of her
ensemble: Her diamond engagement ring from Pitt, 49, which she debuted
about a year ago. (Last week, after appearing with a gold band instead
of the diamond engagement ring, Jolie shot down speculation that the
pair had secretly wed.)
Angelina Jolie wore a diamond ring to the Women in the World Summit 2013 on April 4, 2013 in New York City.
Credit: Astrid Stawiarz/WireImage.com
Jolie was on hand for the event to honor Malala Yousafzai, a
15-year-old girl who was shot in Pakistan last October for seeking
equal-opportunity education in her country. Jolie has pledged $200,000
to a new fund in her name.
"There's a lot you can learn from this little girl," Jolie said
during a brief appearance onstage. "This evening is the beginning. Vital
Voices, Women in the World and I started the Malala Fund. It's not a
fund in her name, it's hers and she'll be in charge of it. So we believe
this is a modest beginning for a big dream and we hope that you will
join us."
"The Taliban shot her at point-bank range in the head, and made her
stronger," Jolie said of Yousafzai, who survived the attack. "In a
brutal attempt to silence her voice, it grew louder."
Yousafzai later appeared via video feed at the event, saying "This is
the happiest moment of my life . . . If we can educate 40 girls, we
can educate 40 million girls."
Side note, Angelina Jolie is stunning & so kind! She stayed to take pics, sign autographs, shake hands. #wiw13twitter.com/JulieSmolyansk…
— Julie Smolyansky (@JulieSmolyansky) April 5, 2013
Angelina announces a $200k donation to the #Malala Fund! "A modest beginning for a big change." WITW.MOBI#wiw13
— Tina Brown (@TheTinaBeast) April 5, 2013
