Isabel Maria Cortesão Casimiro (born 14 January 1955) is a Mozambican sociologist, women's rights activist, and a former politician. She is a professor at the Centre of African Studies,

Eduardo Mondlane University , image = , image_size = , former_names = , motto = , type = Public , established = 21 August 1962 , rector = Manuel Guilherme Júnior, PhD , students = 39,078 (2015) , undergrad = 35,809 , ...

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the Capital city, capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a popul ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. She is a feminist and women's rights activist, and founder of Fórum Mulher and Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust. She was a

FRELIMO FRELIMO (; from the Portuguese , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's firs ...

Member of Parliament from 1995 to 1999.

Early life

Isabel Maria Casimiro was born on 14 January 1955 in Iapala, a small village in

Nampula Province Nampula is a province of northern Mozambique. It has an area of and a population of 5,758,920, making it the most populous province in Mozambique (2017 census). Nampula is the capital of the province. History Under Portuguese rule this provinc ...

, on the north-east coast of Mozambique. Her father was a medical doctor based at the railway station in Iapala. Her parents had moved to Mozambique in 1952, because they were members of the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portugue ...

, which had been declared illegal by the government, so they were effectively "exiled" to what was then one of Portugal's overseas colonies.

Career

From 1995 to 1999 Casimiro was a Member of Parliament, representing

, the Mozambique Liberation Front. Casimiro is the founder, and president from 2006 to 2015, of Fórum Mulher. Casimiro is the founder and the first national coordinator of the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WLSA), based in Mozambique, and since 2015 she has been WLSA's Mozambique board president. Casimiro is a sociology professor at the Centre of African Studies,

, where she specialises in women's and human rights, feminist movements, development issues, and participatory democracy.

References

Living people 21st-century Mozambican women politicians 21st-century Mozambican politicians Mozambican sociologists Eduardo Mondlane University faculty Women sociologists FRELIMO politicians People from Nampula Province Mozambican feminists 1955 births 20th-century Mozambican women politicians 20th-century Mozambican politicians {{Mozambique-politician-stub