Yasmeen Hassan

Yasmeen Hassan is a Pakistani-American attorney and international women's rights activist. She served as the Global Executive Director of Equality Now from 2011 to 2022.

Background
Hassan was born and raised in Pakistan. She moved to the United States in 1987 to attend Mount Holyoke College, earning a BA, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in Political Science in 1991. She obtained her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1994.

The Islamization of Pakistan under the government of general Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was the primary impetus for Hassan's future advocacy for women and girls. She witnessed at an early age how these legal shifts effectively reduced women to second-class citizens. This experience alerted her to the potential of law as a driving force for social change, motivating her to pursue a legal education.

Career
Hassan is the author of "The Haven Becomes Hell: A Study of Domestic Violence in Pakistan," the first study on domestic violence in the country. The report was submitted to the World Conference on Women, 1995. She has clerked on the D.C. Court of Appeals and previously worked at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Her projects at the U.N. included global workshops on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Hassan first became involved with Equality Now in 1999 when where she consulted on the organization's first Words and Deeds report, as part of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Since then, Equality Now's advocacy has resulted in the repeal of over 50 sex discriminatory laws.

She became Global Executive Director of Equality Now in 2011. Prior to her appointment, Hassan served as the organization's Deputy Executive Director and Director of Programs. Under her leadership, Equality Now has worked on a number of strategic litigation cases, with judgments that have set legal precedents and resulted in international and national legal reform. This included a civil case in the US under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act on behalf of Brazilian girls who were sexually exploited by a US-based sex tour operator, settled in 2015. The case resulted in actions from the Brazilian government to protect indigenous girls.

Hassan spearheaded Equality Now's campaigning on discriminatory religious and customary laws, together with UN Women, Musawah, Act Church of Sweden, Femnet, Muslims for Progressive Values, Solidarity for African Women's Rights, Women's Learning Partnership and CLADEM, which was launched at the UN's Commission on the Status of Women in March 2020.

Hassan's commentary has featured on CNN, Al Jazeera, and in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times, and The Huffington Post.

Hassan has been a member of the advisory board for Gucci's Chime For Change campaign since 2013. Hassan was previously a member of the advisory circle for the Women's Building in New York City.

Awards and recognition

 * Sakhi for South Asian Women Gender Justice Award, 2017
 * Stanford Law School National Public Service Award, 2019
 * Forbes' 50 over 50 women, 2021