International freedom fighter joins St Andrews winter graduation celebrations

Almost 1000 students from across the world will gather at the University of St Andrews this December for winter graduations, which will also see three distinguished individuals honoured, including international freedom fighter Diana Nammi.

Graduates from 70 different countries including Scotland, China, Kyrgyzstan, India and the USA, to name just a few, will receive their academic awards in the Younger Hall on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 December 2019.

Leading figures from the worlds of science, social anthropology and women’s rights will also be honoured by the University during winter graduation.

Women’s rights activist Diana Nammi will be awarded an honorary degree on Wednesday 4 December. Diana’s career has taken her from fighting on the front lines as a teenage Peshmerga freedom fighter to being named the UK’s Woman of the Year in 2014.

In 2002 Diana created the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO), an NGO providing advice, advocacy, training and counselling to women and girls from Middle Eastern and North African communities affected by so called “honour” based violence, including forced marriage and Female Genital Mutilation as well as domestic violence.

Others to be honoured include Dame Sally Davies, former Chief Medical Officer for England and Senior Medical Advisor to the UK Government, and social anthropologist Liria de la Cruz Hernández, a leading expert on Roma gender relations, law and women’s rights.

The full list of recipients and ceremonies at which their degrees will be conferred is as follows:

• Tuesday 3 December 2pm – Dame Sally Davies
• Wednesday 4 December 10.30am – Liria de la Cruz Hernández
• Wednesday 4 December 2pm – Diana Nammi