Human rights advocate and constitutional lawyer Dr. Menaka Guruswamy has achieved the rare distinction of having her portrait unveiled at Rhodes House in Oxford University. The unveiling was done at an event held on September 16 in celebration of ’40 years of Rhodes women’, organised by the Rhodes Trust.
Guruswamy is a graduate of NLSIU Bangalore and a Rhodes Scholar. After completing a BCL from Oxford University, she did an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, where she was a Gammon Fellow. She had worked in the office of the Attorney General for India, at a law firm in New York and and as a Human Rights Consultant to the United Nations.
In her acceptance speech Dr. Menaka Guruswamy said: “It is a remarkable privilege to be part of this sisterhood of extraordinary women Rhodes Scholars – you are rocket scientists, artificial intelligence designers, lawyers, teachers, doctors, researchers at the cutting edge of new discoveries, artists, poets, writers, activists and political leaders. You are trouble makers for you unsettle the status quo. You inspire me, you have taught me and you set high standards for me.
Behind every successful woman there is always a wonderful family, and a fierce statute that prohibits sex discrimination.
“For us women these Rhodes scholarships are only but 40 years old. For us, this is not the oldest scholarship in the world. It is a young sisterhood of talented women, making change by our very existence and by our persistence, almost always against great odds in our professional and personal lives.
“Today’s Rhodes Scholars better reflect the beauty of the diverse world we live in, and also reflect, the intent of Rhodes House, the Trust and selection committees to better reflect this diversity of human experience and imagine the world rather differently from how the first founder did.”
