Masum Momaya

Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)

Masum is a South Asian American feminist and has been a women’s rights activist for more than 15 years. She sees herself as translator, not between spoken tongues, but across different types of knowledge and expression – artistic, embodied, collective, intellectual and political. Aside from her role at AWID, Masum recently served as Curator at the International Museum of Women and is part of organizing the feminist media community in the United States. For six years, she served on the board of the Third Wave Foundation, a feminist foundation supporting progressive youth activism and leadership. Dedicated to bringing together theory and practice in accessible and effective ways, she has an honors bachelors degree from Stanford University in Public Policy and Feminist Studies and a masters in education and doctorate in Human Development, both from Harvard University.

Pro-Natalism in Crisis-Ridden Eastern Europe Entraps Young Women

As another June 12th – Russia’s “National Day” – passed in Moscow, the Kremlin calculated how successful its efforts have been to encourage Russia’s women to have more babies. Worried about declining population numbers, the Russian government has introduced a host of measures designed to encourage procreation.