Salamatu Kamara is a

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

an educator, politician and women's rights activist. She is the co-ordinator at the Tamarameh Gender Development Group.

Early life and education

Kamara is a widowed mother of four children. She is the proprietor of the Annie Potter Primary School in Sierra Leone. She is a Temne people, Temne. She received her education at the Evangelical College of Theology.

Politics

Kamara is a member of the All People's Congress (APC) political party. She is a woman's rights activist and is the co-ordinator for the Tamarameh Gender Development Group an organization aimed at providing micro-credit finance for women entrepreneurs. Her work focuses on creating spaces for women in Sierra Leone's political process as well as grassroots community organizing. In 2008, Kamara was nominated to stand in local elections. During her campaign she experienced repeated threats of gender violence and harassment. She won the party nomination at the constituency level but the decision was overturned by the APC nominating committee at the national level in favor of her male opponent Mustapha Maju Kanu. Kamara's name was struck off on a duplicate nomination letter and replaced with Kanu's. Kamara stood for election again in 2012 as an APC candidate but did not win the seat.

Gender Equality Draft Bill

Kamara helped draft the Gender Equality Draft Bill with Bernadette Lahai and

Barbara Bangura Barbara Bangura (born 13 November 1958) is a Sierra Leonean women's rights activist. She is the National Co-Ordinator of the Women's Solidarity Support Group. Early life and education Barbara Thaimu Bangura was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland ...

. The bill sought a 30% representation quota of women in Sierra Leone's political process. She was one of the subjects of the short film ''30% (Women and Politics in Sierra Leone)'' by Anna Cady,

Em Cooper Em Cooper, is a British filmmaker and animator. She is best known for her distinctive hand-painted oil-paint animation style and as the animation director of the critically acclaimed documentary feature films ''Kiss The Water and Deej'', and ...

and Jenny Cuffe. It was an official selection for the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in 2013. The film explores the gender equality challenges women in Sierra Leone are facing, including

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

, corruption and the foundational patriarchy of all-male secret societies such as the Poro Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamara, Salamatu Living people Sierra Leonean feminists Sierra Leonean educators 21st-century Sierra Leonean women politicians 21st-century Sierra Leonean politicians Sierra Leone women's rights activists Year of birth missing (living people)