Yasmeen Hassan

YASMEEN HASSAN became the global executive director of Equality Now in 2011, after serving as deputy executive director and director of programs for three years. Previously, she was with the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, where she worked on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Secretary-General’s study on violence against women. In 1999, she edited Equality Now’s first report on discriminatory laws. She has served on the Council on Foreign Relations’ advisory board on Child Marriage, and has provided expert guidance to the U.N. Trust to End Violence Against Women. Growing up in Pakistan, her defining moment came at age 10 when her country’s laws were “Islamacized,” treating women as second class citizens. Advocating for women’s rights became a major part of Yasmeen’s education and career, ultimately leading her to author the first study of domestic violence in Pakistan which became the nation’s submission to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Hassan earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and a B.A., magna cum laude, in political science from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. @yasmeenhassan7