Samira Rafaela about true diversity and more women in leadership positions - Episode 8

Samira Rafaela is a Dutch Member of the European Parliament for the social-liberal political party D66. She made great strides so far to change things for the better. Ever since her appointment, she helped to launch the Renew Europe Group, advocating for a strong, social and secure Europe. She also came up with the Women on Boards campaign, which aims to have at least 40% of non-executive director positions in listed companies held by women. This year, she won the Harper's Bazaar International Women of the Year 2020 Award for pursuing a more diverse political discourse. In this episode, she talks about one of her biggest role models: her own mother. Samira grew up just north of Amsterdam. She believes that it’s her culturally rich background – being the daughter of a Jewish Curaçaoan-Dutch mother and a Ghanaian-Nigerian Muslim father – that has given her this open-minded world view. The EU’s official motto to be ‘United in Diversity’ is what she stands for. In our interview, Samira touches on racial justice and how to implement anti-racism in children’s classes early on in life. Apart from that, she openly shares how she has dealt with personal attacks because of her public persona and standpoints. She speaks on gender-based discrimination and why we can’t have any setbacks if we want to move into a more fair and sustainable future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.