PwC Hindu Network joined forces with ‘Women Empowered’, an organisation that promotes female empowerment, for an International Women’s Day panel debate on Monday 8th March 2021. Speakers included Nazir Afzal OBE, Taban Shoresh, Founder of The Lotus Flower; Lopa Patel MBE, Chair of Diversity UK with Reena Ranger OBE, Founder of Women Empowered, moderating the panel. Themes explored during the hour long discussion included the politics of gender identity and violence against women, charities and their role in the economic empowerment of women; diversity and conscious inclusion of women within the workplace and allyship.
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The official theme for IWD 2021 waschoose to challenge.
“A challenged world is an alert world.
Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.
We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.”
Speaker biographies
Reena Ranger OBE
Reena Ranger OBE is a British community leader, politician and businesswoman, the founder and chair of Women Empowered which is a social enterprise empowering women through panel discussions and networking. Ranger has been working in the family firm setup by her father Lord Ranger CBE since her twenties. She is an active member of the Conservative Party and spoke at the party conference on ‘fighting injustices’ and has been a Three Rivers District Councillor representing Moor Park and Eastbury since 2014.
Nazir Afzal OBE
Nazir Afzal OBE is a British solicitor with experience in the legal areas of child sexual exploitation and violence against women. He is a practising Muslim, with outspoken views in favour of women’s rights and against forced marriage, female genital mutilation and honour killings.
Nazir was Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England and formerly Director in London. Most recently, he was Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners. During a 24 year career, he has prosecuted some of the most high profile cases in the country and advised on many other and led nationally on several legal topics including Violence against Women & Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour based violence. He had responsibility for more than 100,000 other prosecutions each year. His prosecutions of the so-called Rochdale grooming gang, BBC presenter Stuart Hall and hundreds of others were ground-breaking and drove the work that has changed the landscape of child protection. He is the Chair of Hopwood Hall.
He was appointed to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). He is also National Adviser on Gender Based Violence to the Welsh Government. Most recently he joined the advisory board of Google’s Innovation Fund for counter-extremism.
Taban Shoresh
Taban Shoresh is a British aid worker, women’s rights activist and founder of non-profit organisation: The Lotus Flower. Taban survived child genocide in Kurdistan under Saddam Hussein, experiencing imprisonment at the age of four, as well as narrowly escaping being buried alive with her family. In 2014, Taban returned to Kurdistan for 15 months to help during the humanitarian crisis, this time the oppression of ISIS. The Lotus Flower was founded in March of 2016, in response to the struggles of women and girls she witnessed during her time in Kurdistan, drawing on her strong network of supporters to get things started. Taban is a keen advocate for women’s rights and victims of genocide. She has spoken on many panels, and given talks about her experience.
Lopa Patel MBE
Lopa Patel MBE is a digital entrepreneur, Non-Executive Chair, NED and Trustee. She has significant experience of creating start-ups and transforming businesses through technology. The founder of two ventures in online media and a data-driven marketing consultancy, she is also the Chair of equality and inclusion charity, Diversity UK; a Trustee of The Science Museum Group; a Non-Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and a Council Member of the Open University.
She is an ambassador for entrepreneurship, innovation and technology and has been recognised with many accolades including an MBE for services to the creative industries; the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion and an Honorary Doctorate by The Open University, in recognition of her efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in science and technology.
About the PwC Hindu Network
PwC knows that networking contributes to personal and professional fulfilment and success. That’s why the firm is home to thirteen people diversity networks. Each network has specific objectives tailored to its membership. But all of them share the aim of providing a sense of community, inspiring and supporting diverse talent and raising awareness of diversity within the firm. As well as the personal development and support aspects of the networks, they have a focus on identifying new business opportunities for the firm, supporting its strategy to be a leader in each of our chosen markets. The PwC Hindu Network hosts events throughout the year. Founder and Chair Nilesh Solanki created the network in 2005 to bring together Hindu professionals to collaborate, network and learn.
About Women Empowered
Women Empowered (WE) is a social initiative which aims to empower women to make the best of their individual skills and talents and help them to achieve whatever personal and professional goals they have. WE is open to all, even men. Men are 50% of the population and need to be a part of the discussion so that we can effect change, to our own worlds and the larger one. WE is open to all women although we have a slight South Asian focus.
WE aims to:
- ENGAGE more women in discussion;
- ENCOURAGE fresh and varied thinking and perspective;
- EMPOWER women to find the inner confidence to take the next step;
- ENABLE and support them through the journey by putting them in touch with organisations that can nurture their ideas and mentors who can assist in achieving those goals.
For further information visit http://www.womenempowered.co.uk/