Take Five: “So many women before me fought their way into the room, which is why I could simply walk in”
Source: UN Women
Sanjolli Kumari Padhy is a human rights lawyer and youth advocate from India working with The YP Foundation – a feminist youth-led organization advancing health equity and gender justice in India that is a Commitment Maker for the Feminist Movements and Leadership Action Coalition under the Generation Equality Forum. Padhy joined the first-ever Women’s Assembly on 23 June 2026, hosted under the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)’s World Congress and Summit of Local and Regional Leaders in Tangier, Morocco. Supported by WYDE Women’s Leadership, the Women’s Assembly created a space for women leaders across generations and regions to collectively shape a more inclusive political future.
What inspired you at the first-ever Women’s Assembly?
What inspired me is the radical hope and the resistance that women are really fighting towards. And the power they brought into the room. I’m getting goosebumps even speaking about that, because today there was political representation from so many countries and cities that I had never heard of. So, I think it’s beautiful to see so much power and so much diversity in one space. But now the main issue is: from representation to participation!
Sanjolli Kumari Padhy is a human rights lawyer and youth advocate from India working with The YP Foundation – a feminist youth-led organization advancing health equity and gender justice in India that is a Commitment Maker for the Feminist Movements and Leadership Action Coalition under the Generation Equality Forum. Padhy joined the first-ever Women’s Assembly on 23 June 2026, hosted under the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)’s World Congress and Summit of Local and Regional Leaders in Tangier, Morocco. Supported by WYDE Women’s Leadership, the Women’s Assembly created a space for women leaders across generations and regions to collectively shape a more inclusive political future.
What inspired you at the first-ever Women’s Assembly?
What inspired me is the radical hope and the resistance that women are really fighting towards. And the power they brought into the room. I’m getting goosebumps even speaking about that, because today there was political representation from so many countries and cities that I had never heard of. So, I think it’s beautiful to see so much power and so much diversity in one space. But now the main issue is: from representation to participation!