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There are parts of the world where rape victims are shunned, even stoned to death while their attackers remain free, where female circumcision is ritualistically performed on young women, where so-called honour killings are culturally acceptable and where young women have been killed solely for their pursuit of higher education. Human rights activist, journalist and author Sally Armstrong has been relentless in her quest to expose the plight of oppressed women around the world. She has interacted extensively with fledgling women's movements and her eyewitness accounts from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda and other zones of conflict have earned her a number of prestigious awards, including the National Magazine Gold Award and three Amnesty International Media Awards. The latest of her four books is Ascent of Women in which she says a tipping point has been reached and oppressed women everywhere are winning the fight for equality.

Sally Armstrong is a member of the Order of Canada and a former member of the UN International Women's Commission. She is a compelling speaker and a coup for the Festival.