96 TIME March 1/March 8, 2021
NADEENASHRAF22 • Amplifying
survivors’ storiesBY MONA ELTAHAWYNadeen Ashraf was 12 years old when
Egypt rose up 10 years ago and forced
the ouster of longtime dictator Hosni
Mubarak. She is now at the vanguard
of what I am convinced is another
revolution, this time of women rising
up against tyranny of another kind:
sexual assault.
When I fi rst became a journalist in
Egypt in 1990, I learned that women
did not report rape or sexual assault.
They were too ashamed and feared the
police would not believe them or would
blame them.
A few brave female activists over
the years have exposed sexual assault
by hired thugs and the police. Now, an
Instagram account called Assault Police
that Nadeen founded in July 2020 has
become the platform for hundreds of
survivors to speak out about sexual
violence at home, at work and in social
circles.
I have never seen anything like it in
Egypt.
The unprecedented outpouring has
forced Egypt to pass a law to protect
victims’ identities. But laws alone are
never enough. The women Nadeen has
inspired to fi nd their voice are forcing
a long overdue reckoning. Long live the
feminist revolution!Eltahawy is a journalist and authorJulian Brave
NoiseCat
27 • Policy shaper
BY BILL MCKIBBEN
We are in a golden age of climate
journalism, with many young
writers brilliantly chronicling
the story that has come to
dominate their lifetimes. And as
the Biden Administration seeks
environmental experts to advise
on policy, the climate movement
has put an increased number of
Indigenous people in the lead
to fi gure out how to address the
biggest challenges of climate
change. Call them the Standing
Rock generation.
Julian Brave NoiseCat
stands where the currents of
climate journalism, advocacy
and policy meet. His writing on
the environment crackles with
reported stories and historical
context. But his work at the
think tank Data for Progress
is heavy on numbers, the kind
that inform the Administration’s
emerging plans for trillions in
green- infrastructure spending.
And all of it draws on his own
history—not as a marginalized
outsider, but as the feet- fi rmly-
planted descendant of the people
who inhabited this continent for
millennia. The climate crisis will
be at the center of our public life
for the foreseeable future, and
NoiseCat—no question—will
continue to work from the center
of that center.
McKibben is an author and an
environmentalist
AuréliaNguyen43 • DISTRIBUTING
THE WORLD’S
VACCINESIt’s not an exaggeration to say
that the health of the world lies
in the hands of Aurélia Nguyen.
It’s Nguyen’s job, as managing
director of the COVAX Facility,
to ensure that the lifesaving
and pandemic- ending vaccines
developed against COVID-19
reach as many people around
the world as possible. Public-
health offi cials say that in
today’s connected world, an
outbreak anywhere is an outbreak
everywhere. So only by vaccinating
nearly everyone on the planet can
we erect a human wall of immunity
that’s harder for the virus to
penetrate.
Nguyen oversees $6 billion
in pledges from 98 wealthier
countries to support COVAX,
a joint endeavor of the World
Health Organization, the Coalition
for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations, and Gavi, the Vaccine
Alliance. Since November 2020,
she’s led the facility’s mission to
secure and distribute vaccines
without charge to nearly 92 lower-
resource nations that because of
their smaller health care budgets
would otherwise be shut out of
orders for the shots. COVAX is
competing with wealthier nations
that are securing doses for
themselves, and Nguyen admits
that it’s “not going to be all
smooth sailing.” But in 2021, she
anticipates COVAX will distribute
2 billion doses to countries
including India, Brazil and Nigeria.
ÑAlice Park100 next