Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush announced as UN Women’s Advocate for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India
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Film director will raise awareness on gender equality and the empowerment of women; boost UN Women’s efforts to close the gender gap and achieve ‘Planet 50-50’ by 2030
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri today announced the appointment of film director, classical dancer and writer, Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush, as UN Women’s Advocate for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India.
A leading film director and a startup entrepreneur, Ms. Dhanush will help raise awareness of UN Women’s core messages of gender equality and women’s empowerment across India, boosting the organisation’s efforts to close the gender gap and achieve a more equal world—Planet 50-50—by the year 2030.
“Aishwaryaa inspires confidence in young women and girls across South India and beyond,” said Lakshmi Puri. “With her steadfast belief in gender equality and her commitment to achieving it, I am sure she will take UN Women’s message to millions of women, girls, men and boys, and motivate artists, students, intellectuals and policymakers to place gender equality at the heart of their work,” Ms. Puri added.
“It will be an honour to serve as UN Women’s Advocate for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India,” Ms. Dhanush said in her acceptance speech. “Ensuring safe public and private spaces for women and their effective participation in politics, decision making and the economy are essential steps towards gender equality and the empowerment of women. Through my position I hope to draw attention to some of the challenges and also highlight solutions. I firmly believe that we need accelerated action on gender equality. We need a Planet 50-50 by 2030 and our efforts must begin now.”
Read the full story on UN Women Asia and the Pacific website.