By Peggy McInerny, Director of Communications

UCLA hosted the U.S. State Department's 2025 International Women of Courage on April 7, several of whom spoke about their work and life experience at a public panel event.

UCLA International Institute, April 15, 2024 — Almost exactly a month after International Women's Day, UCLA was honored to host the U.S. State Department's 2025 International Women of Courage. (See brief State Department video about the honorees.)

This year's International Woman of Courage, or IWOC, award, said Associate Dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management Heather Maiirhe Caruso, “[is] an honor bestowed only on eight women from across the globe in recognition of their exceptional work to advance peace, justice, human rights and the empowerment of women everywhere.

“The work that these women do, and the work that they empower and mobilize others to do, is truly remarkable,” said Caruso, principal host of the honorees at UCLA. “Almost always, this work is carried out under risky conditions and in the face of relentless barriers.”

“It's not really about ourselves… the focus comes from never losing sight of what we're in this job for — which is actually not us,” said journalist Namini Wijedasa of the mission she and the other honorees share: being a voice for others.

The awardees participated in a private roundtable discussion with leaders from across the university community, as well as in a public panel event organized by the Anderson School. Both events were made possible with the support of UCLA's executive vice chancellor and provost, senior advisor to the chancellor and the International Institute, as well as the U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Women's Issues, Meridian International, International Citizen Diplomacy of Los Angeles and American Women for International Understanding.

Making a difference for those without a voice

At the public event, Katelyn Choe, U.S. diplomat in residence for Southern California, moderated a conversation with three of the awardees — Namini Wijedasa, Georgiana Pascu and Amat Al-Salam Al-Hajj — at the Crowne Family Audition of the Anderson School.

Asked by Choe to describe the moment when they felt they had to do something, even if it came with personal or professional risk, Pascu pointed to two moments in particular that inspired her decades-long work promoting human rights for institutionalized children and adults with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities in Romania.

“[The] first [was] when I was a student, back in mid-[19]90s, when I saw so many children in orphanages in Romania after communism fell,” she recounted. “And then in February 2024, [I] a met a youth with intellectual disabilities [with] HIV. He was abandoned and I met him a few hours before he died.” She spent the next decade in litigation to improve the protection of the rights of the disabled, in domestic Romanian courts and at the European Court of Human Rights, as way to bring him justice.

Wijedasa, who has worked as an investigative journalist, particularly on issues of corruption, in Sri Lanka for over 30 years, said, “I don't think there was a particular moment… I didn't join journalism by choice, but once I got into it and I started hearing the stories of people around us, there was no option in my mind but to reflect it, because I always say that I'm just a platform for other people.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Al-Salam Al-Hajj said her work as founder and president of the Abductees' Mothers Association in Yemen was prompted by the conflict in her country. After the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, she said “they started to abduct and imprison many people,” she said.

“Some of them were journalists, media personnel, professors at universities, students, sports personalities… [B]y 2014–15, they had 13,000 people in prison,” she continued. “As a result of these practices, we tried to follow up on the causes and the cases of those affected individuals.” Her association now works in all provinces of the country to free civilians who have been unjustly imprisoned by all parties to the conflict.

Balancing grief and rage with the need to stay focused and effective

Asked how she navigates the emotions she experiences with the need to remain focused, Wijedasa said, “I think all of us experience those emotions at some level… When we are exposed to the kind of professions we are in, where we see so much grief, it's not possible to remain… unscathed.

“I would say that for me personally, there are two people,” she continued. “There's the person you see in this room, you know, the one who's able to face you all and tell a story of success. And on the other hand, there's the other person at home that my kids and my husband see, [who's] not that strong.”

Pascu noted, “To be honest, I think I'm very lucky because I have around me at home, and in other parts of the world, very good friends and supporters and collaborators, people that sometimes are telling me, ‘Take it easy. You cannot save the world.' But when I look at them… they are doing a lot of impressive things... I'm thinking here of journalists, as well as people who do work as legal professionals or doctors or psychologists or social workers.”

Her work with poorly educated families in rural areas or Romania, people whose disabled children were placed in orphanages because they signed papers they didn't understand and then were banned from visiting, also made Pascu realize she had much to be grateful for. “I can raise my son. I have a beautiful home,” she reflected. “I have alternatives if I want to work on this or if I don't. But for these parents, they didn't get any kind of alternative.”

Al-Salam Al-Hajj said she was motivated both by the joy of helping people be released from prison and the goal of justice. “We need to hold those perpetrators to account,” she said.

“[W]e go through moments of sorrow, deep sorrow, [with] mothers crying in pain. The only thing that drives us to continue — not only me, but everybody who works with the association — is … when they release prisoners [and the mothers] say thank you,” she explained. “They push us and they tell us, ‘Never stop until everybody gets released. Continue!' This is the part that really makes us go on.”

Sharing wisdom with their younger selves

“I've been a journalist for three decades... so it's a lot of exposure. Looking back, I would have probably told myself to take better care of my of myself, because as much as I say that we are a platform, it's very easy to forget that we're also human,” said Wijedasa in response to a question about what she would share with her younger self.
“[W]hen I started this work [in disability rights]… at the end of 2003, I was expecting that everything will be fine in 10 years,” reflected Pascu. “So what I've had told myself now is that you should have more patience, and [that] maybe I should be less tough with my colleagues.

“If I would go back 25 years ago,” she continued, “I [would also] try to picture myself in front of the government authorities as a nicer person, because now most of them… when they have to meet with me, [their reaction is] kind of, ‘Oh, my God!'”

Al-Salam Al-Hajj said she would have encouraged her younger self to start with more training and knowledge. “I would say, we would do the same thing, but more modern, more efficient, more advanced… I would say that we needed to gain the experience, expertise and the knowledge before worked on this in general.

“We got the training we needed… but the main issue for us that hinders our work — and really, it's one of the main obstacles within the country or anyone's work in human rights field — is the ongoing conflict. The more the conflict continues, the more violations there will be,” she concluded.

Memorable individuals

Asked about memorable people who had supported them or helped illuminate the meaning of their work, only Al-Salam Al-Hajj said, “We rarely found anybody who would encourage us, support us and advocate for us.” To the contrary, she recounted, “[We heard,] ‘You're not going to achieve anything.'

“However, I and my sisters in the association, we supported each other,” she explained. “We said, ‘We are strong enough, we can deal with it.' … We kept telling each other… ‘It doesn't matter how long it takes, we'll get them out of the prisons.'”

Pascu mentioned a lawyer and legal researcher who has helped her since she began fighting for the rights of the disabled in Romania, and later joined the board of directors of her organization.

“I used to work online; I had no team at that moment. And he helped me a lot in campaigning and in writing and also in speaking [correctly] to authorities… And he was the one [who said], ‘Drink some water, eat something, do your homework and do not complain.'”

Pascu then mentioned what she had learned from helping a beautiful young boy she met in an orphanage. The boy was in desperate need of medical help and she called an ambulance and accompanied him to the hospital, where she ended up being terribly upset with the people there. “[W]hen I… stay[ed] with them and explain[ed] a little bit about the situation, they were eager to help us… You need to be patient and you need to show people that there is hope,” she reflected.

Looking back on her career in investigative journalism, Wijedasa said, “Editors stand out quite a bit. The most recent editor I have has been of tremendous support. [They] are also buffers… between us and the higher powers, so we are able to work more safely… One day when we [had] a particularly bad threat during a recent administration, I said, ‘I can't do this anymore, because I feel threatened.' And he [said], ‘If you lived through what I lived through… this is nothing.'

“[T]he perspective of all of those who came before us, who have learned so much more than us, has always constantly made me understand why I should stay the course,” she concluded.

Choe brought the discussion to a close with some friendly advice for all present, “As you go back [to your day], remember this room, remember this moment. [Remember] that, though our steps may be different and we [walk] in different places, you never walk alone.”

Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2025