Tania Leon, born Ruth Naomi Leon, (

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, May 4, 1945 –

Nigtevecht Nigtevecht () is a village in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands with a population of 1,395. Formerly part of the municipality of Loenen; it has been part of the newly-formed municipality of Stichtse Vecht since 2011. It is situated about west ...

, August 15, 1996) was a South African born teacher and

women's activist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that socie ...

. She was a member of the anti-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

movement in the Netherlands and of the Dutch unit of the

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election installe ...

Biography

Leon was born on Friday May 4, 1945 in

Wellington, South Africa Wellington is a town in the Western Cape Winelands, a 45-minute drive from Cape Town, in South Africa with a population of approximately 62,000. Wellington's economy is centered on agriculture such as wine, table grapes, deciduous fruit, and a bra ...

. She was the youngest child of a family of nine. Leon trained as a teacher and in the academic year 1960–1961 she obtained her "lower primary teacher's certificate" at the

Athlone Institute Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population o ...

Paarl, South Africa Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

. From January 1969 to June 1972 she worked as a teaching assistant at the Mountain River High School in Wellington. In 1973, Leon decided to leave

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

because the South African government's apartheid policies were becoming more repressive. She arrived in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in 1973 Leon pursued a nursing course in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

from 1973 to 1976 and worked from August 1982 until early 1985 as a district nurse at the Amsterdam Cross Societies. She became a Dutch citizen in1984, Leon worked from August 1986 to 1989 at the Foundation for Women and Informatics in Amsterdam, as well as a lecturer at the Women's School of Informatics from August 1987. Leon died on Thursday, August 15, 1996 at the age of 51 in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Tania South African activists South African women activists Anti-apartheid activists People from Wellington, Western Cape South African emigrants to the Netherlands 1945 births 1996 deaths MacDowell Colony fellows Women civil rights activists