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Shereen Essof

Executive Director
Zimbabwe

Shereen is a Zimbabwean feminist, activist, popular educator, academic and JASS Executive Director since 2020. She is known and appreciated for her huge energy and infectious, warm laugh, and for living her feminist principles in everyday life in unpretentious ways.

Shereen’s work is grounded in her engagement with women in trade unions, social movements, and community-based organizations. She strives to understand the roots and the gendered nature of neo-liberal, patriarchal systems, and from that understanding to imagine and organize towards alternatives. She has shared her time and capacities with numerous social justice organizations, not only to strategize, mobilize, and take action but also to create accessible information through oral histories, documentary, creative writing, and art. Shereen has published widely on feminism, women’s movements, and social movement organizing in journals in South Africa and internationally. An avid reader and walker, Shereen often spends her downtime lapping up the light on the Cape seaboard with a good book in hand.


Articles and Publications

South Africa: patriarchy, paper, and reclaiming feminism, OpenDemocracy: 2012
Searching for South Africa: The New Calculus of Dignity, UNISA Press: 2011
My Dream Is To Be Bold: Our Work to End Patriarchy, FemAl/Pambazuka Press: 2010
“Three men holding 12 million people hostage”, Pambazuka 405: 2008
The Zimbabwean Women’s Movement, 1995 – 2000, University of Cape Town: 2003
“And they are fierce!”, Researching Sexuality with Young Women: Southern Africa, Feminist Africa 17: 2012

Media Profiles

Engaging with Feminist Leadership – Shereen Essof – a Personal Journey
Shereen Essof: The state of Zimbabwean women’s organising, Her Zimbabwe: 2012

Recent Blog Posts

The Long Haul
Tripping Over Inequality
A Walk Down Vilakazi Street
Fanning the Flames of Feminist Activism in Zambia
What’s in a Partnership?

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