{"id":9212,"date":"2014-11-17T10:48:46","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T10:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/11\/17\/farhan-akhtar-given-un-role\/"},"modified":"2014-11-17T10:48:46","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T10:48:46","slug":"farhan-akhtar-given-un-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/17\/farhan-akhtar-given-un-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Farhan Akhtar Given UN Role"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>Announced as UN Women\u2019s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"1\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" vspace=\"10\" align=\"middle\" width=\"458\" height=\"191\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/Farhan-Akhtar-UN-Role-458x191.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>UN Women, the United Nations organisation dedicated to gender equality and women\u2019s empowerment, has announced the appointment of actor-filmmaker-singer Farhan Akhtar as its South Asia Goodwill Ambassador. Farhan is the first man to be chosen as a Goodwill Ambassador in the organisation\u2019s history.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>An accomplished and well-respected actor-filmmaker-singer, Farhan Akhtar has not only made his presence felt in the Indian film industry with his versatility, but has represented the voice of numerous concerned men on the important issue of gender equality and violence against women and girls in India through his Men Against Rape and Discrimination (MARD) campaign.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Farhan will dedicate his efforts as UN Women\u2019s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia towards the empowerment of women and girls, and will serve as an advocate for UN Women\u2019s newly launched\u00a0<em>HeForShe<\/em>\u00a0initiative in advocating for gender equality and women\u2019s empowerment. \u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe are pleased and honoured to have Farhan as our Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia, for we believe his work and values represent the core values of UN Women,\u201d stated UN Women Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. \u201cFarhan started his own campaign, MARD \u2014 Men Against Rape and Discrimination \u2014 that aims to sensitise men and create awareness about the safety of women. That kind of engagement is essential. We need creative and committed men like Farhan to push the gender equality and women\u2019s empowerment agenda. I am convinced that Farhan\u2019s passion and conviction for the cause will galvanise a multiplier effect and reach the hearts and minds of men and boys in South Asia and beyond,\u201d added Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The MARD campaign has successfully encouraged many actors to join this campaign and spread awareness. Corporations like Google have also engaged with the initiative to empower women through Internet literacy.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cI am honoured to serve UN Women as the Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia,\u201d said Mr. Akhtar.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThis gives me and our MARD initiative an added impetus to work together towards a more gender equal India and world. I am a supporter of UN Women\u2019s HeForShe campaign and the role men and boys can play in stopping crime against women and girls, and working towards gender equality. Through this new partnership I want to call on all men and boys to be a catalyst for change and, through our actions, create a value system to end gender disparity.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Mr. Akhtar\u2019s appointment coincides with the visit of UN Women\u2019s top official to India. Earlier in the week she met with the President of India and senior ministers of the new government, and participated in the\u00a02nd Global MenEngage Symposium, which brought together more than 400 NGOs working on gender justice in New Delhi. The visit to India comes as UN Women\u2019s global initiative Beijing+20 \u201cEmpowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture It\u201d is reigniting a global conversation on gender equality and women\u2019s rights in the lead up to the\u00a020th anniversary of the historic 1995 Beijing Conference, which produced what is considered the most comprehensive women\u2019s rights agenda, the Beijing Platform for Action.\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#13;<br \/>\nUN Women\u2019s other Goodwill Ambassadors include British actor Emma Watson, Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman and\u00a0HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol\u00a0of Thailand.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Announced as UN Women\u2019s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia &#13; UN Women, the United Nations organisation dedicated to gender equality and women\u2019s empowerment, has announced the appointment of actor-filmmaker-singer Farhan Akhtar as its South Asia Goodwill Ambassador. Farhan is the first man to be chosen as a Goodwill Ambassador in the organisation\u2019s history. &#13; \u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}