Here is to the champion within you, IWD 2016

I am by far not a feminist, yet I am a believer that the more gender equality we guarantee, the more impact women would leave in this world.
This year I was lucky to represent my country; Egypt; on Ericsson's Region Middle East Diversity and Inclusion Council and it was then that I decided to check out the history of women international day! Among all the demonstrations and movements against discriminative laws, labor rights and victimized women, I fell in love with the slogan of the successful textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January–March 1912, often known as the "Bread and Roses strike". Well said ladies, we want bread and roses too!I believe in equality but not sameness, which made me resonate with this brilliant slogan phrased over 100 years ago, intuitively, by women who had the courage to stand up for their rights.This year’s IWD global campaign’s slogan is “pledge for parity”, yet to me the real challenge isnt in pleeding for parity its in believeing in the wonders we are capable of achieving and for that we need to first explore the real champions within us, then everything else follows. That got me thinking about our IWD celebration: how do we inspire our female staff to help them explore their true strengths, the real passion that resides in their hearts?It was then that I started thinking about inspirational figures that I could bring over to our office IWD celebration as guest speakers, and I couldn’t find more inspiring candidates than those three amazingly inspirational women champions from the Egyptian Federation for sports for Special needs (super special people as I like to call them) Rahma Khaled, Salma Ala ElDin and Nadine Nagy. When they took the floor there was this avalanche of inspiration, their passion for sports and persistence to nail their dreams down superseded all expectations. They shared with us their success, achievements, dreams and challenges and left the audience in owe! One of our women staff reflected that to her it was a wake-up call that there is pretty much nothing she isn’t capable of achieving should she really want it.I was then assured that the pledge for parity is a plead to oneself, to every human being to see her/his full range and explore his full potentials. So Here is to:The champion within youThe dream warrior inside youThe passionate leader in youThe radiant soul with you