It may or may not come as a surprise to some people to find out that Egypt ranks in the bottom ten worldwide in gender equity. This means that, culturally, Egyptian women have “significantly lower participation in the labor force, lower literacy rates,” and suffer from high rates of domestic and sexual violence. Here in America, Egyptian women are much less likely to face as much gender inequality. However, vestiges of that sexism still haunt us; women can be overlooked, forgotten, or dismissed.

Sometimes, this overlooking can be subtle and unintentional. For example, the Los Angeles Diocese held a “Coptic Leadership” event that had a panel of three leaders. While I was at first excited to hear about the event and loved all the speakers, I couldn’t help but notice that all the speakers were male, and I wondered why there where no women on the panel.

I reached out to the organizer to ask about the lack of women being represented in our community, but I did not get a satisfying response.

While the coordinators likely didn’t mean any ill will when they neglected to add at least one woman to the leadership panel, it represents a pattern of subconscious bias present in our culture. Having strong female leaders serving as role models is crucial to the advancement of our society. That being said, those female leaders should be made known, especially to the youth. So here are 9 examples of Coptic women exemplifying truly amazing leadership- not only in the church, but in the world as well.

Suzie Abdou

Suzie Abdou is a policy analyst and international development specialist with experience in democracy, governance, and gender in the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to being a regular contributor to NPR, Huffington Post, and other online and news television programs, Suzie has also led a service mission to the refugee camps in Greece, Serbia, and France. Suzie is a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project and their Los Angeles chapter Co-Director, a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and she was a 2017 Franklin Fellow with the U.S. Department of State — Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

Jacqueline Isaac

 

Jacqueline Isaac is a lawyer and Vice President of the international non-profit “Roads of Success,” which focuses on human rights issues. As a social justice advocate, not only has she testified before both the UK parliament and U.S. Congress to officially classify ISIS’s attack against Yazidi’s as a genocide, but she also personally travels to Iraq to save Yazidi women captured as sex slaves by ISIS.

Dina Habib Powell

 

Born in Cairo, Dina and her family immigrated to the United States when she was just four years old. After graduation, she worked her way up to become president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and pioneered their “10,000 Women” initiative, “which seeks to empower female small business owners in developing countries. Currently, she works for the Trump Administration as an economic adviser and national security aide.

Christine Malati

 

Christine Malati is a pharmacist working in global health. As a Pharmaceutical Adviser for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Christine advises the team on appropriate use of pharmaceuticals for the United States Government HIV program, PEPFAR. She also manages a multi million dollar contract to assure the quality of pharmaceuticals that are distributed to support USAID funded programs. Finally, she supports the USAID Egypt Health Team to aid efforts in the country’s nutrition, family planning, and Hepatitis C initiatives. She has served as the USAID HQ lead for South Sudan, accountable for testing, treatment targets and program objectives of the HIV program. Christine is active both in the research world as much as the applied practice world, and has published several works on managing HIV infection and assuring medicine quality. Aside from her HIV work in Africa, Christine is also a long-time servant. She served as the Coordinator of Pharmacy Services at the Mission Life Center Hope Clinic (a free clinic for the uninsured) for 6 years where she coordinated medication access for patients and counseled patients on medication use. She is clearly very passionate about public health and recently launched a blog entitled Temporarily Disguised as a Pharmacist. She has volunteered several times with the Coptic Mission in Africa and was one of the first volunteers of Coptic Orphans’ “Serve to Learn” program in Egypt. Finally, Christine is also a leader in body positivity, having launched a body image conference for high school youth and has been a contestant for the Torrid 2018 Model Search.

Marina Nakhla

 

Marina Nakhla is a lifelong Disability Rights advocate, taking to the internet to advocate, including such blogging platforms such as Ottobock Momentum, Thrive Magazine, Coptic Voice, March for Science, and Amplitude Magazine. She is also the recipient of an NIH training grant for the “Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) Program.

Being a double amputee herself, Marina also fosters mentor/mentee relationships within the amputee community and pushes herself and others to go past one’s limits. For example, recently, through EmpowerFest, a disabilities advocate organization, she walked her first 5K at a Challenged Athletes Foundation Event.

 

She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, and she aspires to pursue a Ph.D. as well. Marina aims to address the gap of physically disabled participants in research and work with amputees in the future.

Marina Joseph

 

Although only a freshman in college, this long time Sunday School teacher and regular mission volunteer created her own charity called “Unheard Cries,” a nonprofit organization that raises awareness and helps put a dent in middle Eastern poverty through a localized approach. By means of fundraising and collecting donations, Unheard Cries raises money for the poverty-stricken community in the Middle East, and helps transform people’s passion for service into profitable work. Currently, Marina serves as the President of her nonprofit and is pursuing her Bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Riverside.

Nermein Riad

 

Nermien Riad is the founder and executive director of Coptic Orphans, an international nonprofit “that works with Egyptian children through grassroots partnerships and volunteer networks, especially those who have lost a parent.” Nermien has been recognized by the National Council of Nonprofits and the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area Community for her work with Coptic Orphans, and has even won the Women’s Leadership Award from the ADC Women’s Empowerment Forum.

Donna Rizk

 

Donna Rizk Asdourian is “one of a handful of Coptic women to specialize in theology and history in the United States,” and “‘likely one of the only Coptic women who has attended an Orthodox seminary.” With a Ph.D in in Theology at the University of King’s College, London, she is also the author of the popular blog Learn Pray Love, and the founder of the Orthodox Women’s Ministry. Currently, Donna is a Fellow specializing in Coptic Christianity with a focus on women within the Coptic tradition at Fordham University.

Giselle Sorial

 

Giselle Sorial received her Master’s degree in Public Administration from the number one program in the United States- and it’s been nonstop for her since. After graduation, she oversaw the Broker Program under the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority, and helped shape the policy and program for the first 2 years of the Affordable Care Act in Washington D.C. In her position, she handled both small business policy and individual policy, and helped to craft the broker portal’s platforms. Besides her work in government, Giselle is also passionate about service, and at the height of refugee crisis, she left to Europe where she served in the camps. Coming home, she joined Hillary Clinton’s Campaign as a GOTV Director in the battleground state of Florida.Currently, Giselle works in the district office for Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes of the California State Legislature, and is the Political Regional Director for the African American Caucus of the California Democratic Party. She also sits on the Board of the Southern California Public Health Administration and for TruEvolution, the board of Black Los Angeles Young Democrats, and also helped pioneer the coalition for Black Health and Wellness in the Inland Empire. Finally, Giselle is part of Emerge California’s 2018 cohort, a highly selective and prestigious program that trains democratic women to run for public office.