– Gistmania
The activist was listed alongside Sanna Marin, who leads Finland’s all-female coalition government, Michelle Yeoh, star of the new Avatar and Marvel films, and Sarah Gilbert, who heads the Oxford University research into a Coronavirus vaccine, as well as Jane Fonda, a climate activist and actress.
According to the BBC, this year’s 100 Women list “is highlighting those who are leading change and making a difference during these turbulent times”.
Yesufu has also been at the forefront of the EndSARS movement, a campaign that gained traction on social media globally against the excesses of a deadly police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
Yesufu, who was born by Edo parents but raised in Kano, had always shared her difficult experiences of being a girl-child in a heavily patriarchal environment.
She said,
“By the time I was 11 years old, I did not have any female friends because all of them had been married off but I wanted to be educated and leave the ghetto.
“Most of my mates were almost grandmothers when I married at 24.”