Legal Professionals in the 100 Most Influential Women

Research by Emily Thomas

The BBC has created a list of the 100 most influential women from around the world. This annual list was created following the 2012 Delhi gang rape, to create a series celebrating the achievements of women today.

On the 2022 list there were various women globally who have been influential within the legal sector. This included Maeen Al-Obaidi from Yemen, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo from Nigeria and Ayesha Malik from Pakistan.

Maeen Al-Obaidi

As the civil war in Yemen reaches its seventh year, Maeen Al-Obaidi has utilised her position as a lawyer to act as a mediator, to focus on peace building and facilitate prisoner exchanges between conflicting groups. The lack of any state intervention in Yemen means communities must rely upon themselves to maintain peace. Al-Obaidi, has been seen, amongst other women, to break the traditional social roles and fill roles which may have previously been exclusive to men, negotiating, mediating, and intervening. Her role has been essential in ensuring legal advice and a defence for imprisoned women. Women have been subject to detention, forced disappearances, violence, and sexual violence. Maeen has volunteered on the Yemeni Women’s union which enabled her to advocate for imprisoned and battered women.??Progressing within her career Al-Obaidi has been the first women appointed to the Syndicate Council. This council oversees human rights and freedoms committee which aligns with her peace-seeking work and aims to ensure justice is accessible in Yemen. Prior to the war Al-Obaidi handled the cases of poor women, but now is negotiating the opening of roads, mediating on the front lines of conflict in Taiz and utilising her language skills to converse with parties in their language. Her efforts have meant the bodies of families can be returned to them and roads are opened to allow people may cross the two parts of the besieged city.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo

The importance of protecting women is reiterated by the work of Joy Ngozi Ezeilo. She studied a postgraduate degree in law at Queen Mary College, University of London, and a BL from the Nigerian Law school. Alongside her work in academia, she has worked for the government on both state and federal levels notably as the honourable commissioner for women affairs and social development. Human rights, democracy and good governance are areas of importance to her which are replicated in her impactful actions, supporting women.

She has worked as emeritus dean of law at the University of Nigeria, former united nations special rapporteur on trafficking of persons and leading authority in the field of international human rights. With her extremely impressive resume Ngozi Ezeilo has founded the Women aid collective, and as director has provided free legal aid and shelter to 60,000 women who were vulnerable in Nigeria. In addition, for survivors and victims of abuse she has founded a sexual assault referral centre, providing rapid response.

Ayesha Malik

Ayesha Malik from Pakistan is another influential woman listed in the BBC 100 Women 2022. Malik has an impressive academic history finishing her legal education with an LLM from Harvard Law School. A symbol of progression in Pakistan, Malik became the first female judge of the supreme court of Pakistan. Notably she has authored judgments protecting the rights of women, with her particularly landmark removal of the “so called two finger test of rape victims*.”Alongside her work as a judge, she also trains judges around the world, and gives conferences educating female judges in Pakistan, encouraging debate over gender in the justice system. She has participated with many pro bono projects, for NGOs, poverty alleviation programs, skills training, and micro-finance programs. Volunteering and teaching being important to Malik. Stand out career highlights include support women in the litigation process, and aim to eliminate gender inequality, with gender-based violence court and the making of a gender equality policy. Malik has acknowledged that acceptability as a woman in law is one of the key challenges faced by female judges. Therefore, the importance of her work to improve acceptability, social norms and the workplace narrative is an essential contribution to improving the likelihood of female opportunities in law and to become judges.

Summary

The global influence of women worldwide is clear but the list captures the work of truly exceptional women in their respective fields, with gender being a key area in need of progression within the legal sector specifically.

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