BY SARAH MELODY
“I’m focusing on making the education system have more female examples in the history books,” 19-year-old Anwar Basunbul, the G(irls) 20 Summit delegate from Saudi Arabia, tells Samaritanmag over Skype. “Because if you want to change the culture and tradition, you have to change the mentality of the new generation, so they can grow up believing that men are like women and women are like men. We can work. We can do whatever they’re doing.”
The first-ever G(irls) 20 Summit was held in Toronto June 15 to 17, beginning 12 days prior to the official G20 summit with 20 world leaders from the major economies. Twenty-one females delegates, ages 18 to 20, were chosen from each of the G20 countries — Argentina (Julieta Leiva, 19), Australia (Jane Harris, 19), Brazil (Thais Moraes, 18), Canada (Leah Stuart-Sheppard, 19), China (Emily Zhang, 19), France (Ines Le Bihan, 20) , Germany (Alexandra Rose Rieger, 18), India (Tanvi Girotra, 19), Indonesia (Kartika Nurhayati, 19), Italy (Alberta Pelino, 20), Japan (Aiki Segawa, 19), Mexico (Tania Montemayor, 19), Russia (Anna Malinovskaya, 20), Saudi Arabia (Basunbul), South Africa (Nomathemba Sibanyoni, 19), South Korea (Eun-Hyang Go, 19), Turkey (Irem Turner, 19), UK (Ruby Tabner, 20), USA (July Lee, 19), the European Union (Simona Popa, 20) — plus Malawi (Laura Dolozi, 18).
The G(irls)20 Summit — the tagline for which is “3.3 billion ways to change the world” — was created by The Belinda Stronach Foundation and executed with more than 40 international partners to raise awareness among G20 leaders about the pivotal role girls and women play in ensuring economic productivity.
