Harvard author notes leading role for women in post-genocide Rwanda
A woman who was raped during the genocide became caregiver for her younger sisters. Another helped create an association to assist widows and orphans after her own husband, parents, and siblings were killed. A third became a grassroots activist who took part in efforts to persuade Rwandan fighters in Congo to return home. A fourth was a lawyer who helped rewrite the country’s constitution. These are some of the 90 profiles in “Rwandan Women Rising,” a new book by Swanee Hunt, a former U.S. ambassador to Austria and the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government. Filled with testimonies gathered since 2000, the book highlights the key roles played by women, from activists to entrepreneurs to lawmakers, in rebuilding the country following the 1994 genocide. “In the many books I had read on Rwanda, women are mostly mentioned as victims,” said Hunt, just back from a trip...