Johanna Higgs and Liga Rudzite

Johanna Higgs is from Perth, Australia. She is working on her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, focusing on the militarization of child soldiers in Colombia. She has worked in the development sector in various countries, including the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Uganda. Higgs is the director of Project MonMa, an international nonprofit group focused on improving women's lives. She speaks English and Spanish.

Liga Rudzite is a Marie Curie fellow, working on her Ph.D. in economics at Tallinn University in Estonia, focusing on efficiency of international development cooperation programs in Central Asia. She has been involved in the community development sector in Latvia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia through designing educational and social programs and serving as a development policy adviser at Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation.

Fleeing Violence, Syrian Women Try to Cope in Turkey and Lebanon

Johanna Higgs and Liga Rudzite
• April 6, 2016

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Amima and Fatima Jebari are Syrian sisters who fled last year to the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, after the Free Syrian Army entered their village in the north, they said, and…

Categories: Gender Violence, Human Rights, Middle East, Refugees, Women

WORLDVIEWS

In Kurdistan and Beyond, Honor Killings Remind Women They Are Worthless

Johanna Higgs and Liga Rudzite
• May 6, 2014

KURDISTAN, Iraq — For many women in Kurdistan, life is anything but honorable. We have come to this autonomous region in northern Iraq as social anthropologists to research violence against women — particularly, honor killings — by interviewing local…