Muhammad Ali Center Shining a Light International Photography Contest

CONTEST THEME: "Shining a Light: Iconic Women, from Everyday Life to Global Heroes”

Icon (noun) - a person or thing widely admired especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere.

Throughout recorded history, women have been forced to live within systems that actively work to suppress them. According to a 2020 study by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, gender-based inequalities that limit women’s access to education, secure and durable housing, and ownership of property directly result in an in overrepresentation of women in impoverished urban areas around the world. Contrarily, when the opposite occurs and women are empowered to pursue educational opportunities and take on leadership roles, individuals and communities around them benefit exponentially.

Despite global progress toward a more just and equitable world, the United Nations Women organization cites a “lackluster commitment to gender equality” as the number one reason that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals will not be met by 2030. To usher in a new wave of progress and empower women globally, the world must recognize women fighting for change, locally and internationally.

We invite photographers, amateur and professional, to submit photographs that illustrate the various ways in which women can be iconic and create change for good in their communities and beyond. This contest will accept photographs that illustrate the following themes:

- The direct, positive effect women have on their families and communities.
- Women performing acts to make the world a better place, for themselves and for others.
- Women professionals in fields that are typically deemed “male dominant.”
- Internationally known contemporary and historical women leaders, inventors, educators, and advocates.
- Lesser-known contemporary and historical women leaders, inventors, educators, and advocates.

A few examples of internationally iconic women:

- Mother Teresa - Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, widely regarded as one of the most notable humanitarians in history.
- Malala Yousafzai - Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize.
- Amelia Earhart – American women’s rights activist and the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.