Wonder women
The Hindu : Zerbanoo Gifford travelled for almost three years over 60 countries, meeting over 300 women who had changed the world in their own way. In fact her husband joked that she was becoming a serial womaniser.But all that “womanising” led Zerbanoo Gifford, the 57-year-old writer, human rights campaigner, and community activist, to put together the book “Secrets of the World’s Inspirational Women”. An Indian raised in London, Zerbanoo was keen to write a global book on women across all endeavours. And opportunity came in the form of the National Endowment of Science, Technology and Arts (NESTA) fellowship in 2004.In a way Zerbanoo herself would befit an entry into the book — she was the first non-white Asian woman from the Liberal Party to be elected thrice to parliament. An adviser to the former British Home Secretary, member of the Race Relations Forum, and director of Anti-Slavery International, she also chaired the commission looking into “Ethnic Minority Involvement In British Life”. In short she was one of the pioneers of Asian women in British public life. She’s also founder-director of the Asha Foundation that supports philanthropy worldwide.The book is not, as one expects, a series of profiles but views and opinions of these women sorted out thematically. “A series of profiles is extremely boring,” declares Zerbanoo, settling down at the Taj Gateway for an interview. She was in Landmark to release her book as part of the India promotional tour. “People are interested in themes and what I feel about these women. CVs don’t explain journeys they’ve taken and how they’ve responded to life. You have feminist books on anger but this is one of admiration.”Moreover, she says, people today don’t want to read books; they only want to skim or dip into them. And this book works fine in such a format. She wanted to feature women who had changed their communities but were not household…More
