Marie Claude Naddaf ( Arabic:ماري كلود نداف) is an

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

and a nun. In 1994, she became Mother Superior at the Good Shepherd Convent in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

, and in 1996, she and her convent opened the "Oasis Shelter", Syria's first facility for victims of

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

and

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

. She also began Syria's first telephone

hotline A hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. An example would be a phone that automat ...

, which was attached to an

emergency shelter An emergency shelter is a place for people to live temporarily when they cannot live in their previous residence, similar to homeless shelters. The main difference is that an emergency shelter typically specializes in people fleeing a specific ...

for women. She won for women in police custody in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

the right to be released to a shelter, if they were determined to be victims of trafficking. She also created a nursery school and a vocational education program at the women's prison in Damascus. She received a 2010

International Women of Courage The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...

award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naddaf, Marie Claude Living people Syrian women's rights activists Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Christian nuns 21st-century Christian nuns Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award Place of birth missing (living people)