PRESS RELEASE: Following the sectarian conflicts in Iraq, many families were forced to flee the country in hopes of seeking a safe place to openly practice their faith and beliefs. In response, Khalid Khowshnaw founded the Hemn Group which combats any form of discrimination including that of race, religion, ethnicity, or sectarian groups.

The Hemn Group promotes inclusion of differing nationalities working alongside one another, oftentimes sharing in each other’s celebrations and feasts. They are also credited for providing jobs for countless Christians, Muslims, and Yazidi in areas that are safe to practice their faith and beliefs free of discrimination and facilitates the free practice of worship. This also creates an inclusive, sustainable economy, an antidote to sectarian conflict.

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation congratulates Khalid Khowshnaw as a finalist for the 2021 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards. On the occasion of this nomination, the Hemn Group shared the following:

• — “During the many years of the sectarian conflicts in Iraq after 2003, many families fled from the other parts of Iraq to the Kurdistan region seeking a safe zone. We at the Hemn Group offered many the opportunity of getting jobs, many of whom have been promoted to occupy high levels of the jobs and have continued working with us for long time and still there are still a large number thanks that their areas are saved and safe now compare to the past years. In the Hemn Group, you will find different religious believers are respected and facilitations are provided for them to practice their worships: Muslims, Christians, Yazidi are free to express themselves without been hatred or prevented. We share each others’ celebrations and feasts.”

Khalid Khowshnaw is competing for a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal, which will be announced and awarded on Aug. 24 virtually at Dare to Overcome. Dare to Overcome is the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s global intersectionality conference, highlighting the ways diverse communities support and reinforce one another to build more inclusive workplaces and peaceful societies.

Background on the Awards

The Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards are presented biennially by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, a US-based nonprofit, in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact’s Business for Peace initiative. The foundation helps educate the global business community about how religious freedom is good for business and how they can promote respect for freedom of religion or belief.

The awards are held in tandem with the opening of the Paralympic Games, including previously being held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and in Seoul in 2018. This year they will be held during RFBF’s Dare to Overcome event, Aug. 22-24, 2021, both virtually worldwide and in-person in Tokyo (due to pandemic restrictions, limited to those already in Japan) .

In the short video below, the global chair of the Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards, Dr. Brian Grim (also president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation), shares the inspiration for these awards, followed by brief reflections by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Millicent Rone ( MBA, ITIL), Sr. Specialist, Inclusion and Diversity, at American Airlines celebrated this week American Airlines receiving 2nd place for the Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index 2021 AND… has been named the official airline of Dare to Overcome, a Global Faith-and-Belief Oriented ERG festival in support of peace and people with disabilities, held in tandem with the Paralympic Games.

For the sixth year in a row, American received a top score of 100 on the Disability Equality Index (DEI) and is named one of the best places to work for disability inclusion in 2021.

At American Airlines, our purpose is to care for people on life’s journey – a mission that extends beyond the airline and into the communities we serve. Thanks to our Christian, Indian and Abilities ERGs for collaborating and for their passion to serve!

REDI Index | RFBF (https://lnkd.in/eQ256f5)

Dare to Overcome award from American Airlines goes to Justin Greene

by Kent Johnson, J.D., Senior Corporate Advisor, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation

Part of the blog series, Authenticity & Connection

Economist Milton Friedman famously said,

“There is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use its resources and engage in activities designed to INCREASE ITS PROFITS so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” (Emphasis added).

Do you agree?

Set aside for a moment the carefully worded WHY that your company may already have put in writing; the one that defines social responsibility in less craven terms than Friedman used. What’s REALLY the main why that’s driving your company?

Today I’ll suggest a course that clears the way to truly embrace a rich, resilient, and productive WHY. I’ll describe what, for many, will be a new kind of connection; one that will engage your increasingly diverse workers.

Nearly all major faith traditions agree that, when it’s the preeminent goal, the profit motive is a toxic master. When profitability is preeminent, the culture drives people to secretly walk as close to the edge of legality and ethics as they can, without getting caught. Over time, such a culture fans distrust among coworkers. It breeds skepticism, disloyalty and fear. It forces employees to hide their personal values and aspirations, as if they were something to be ashamed of.

For clarification, I’m emphatically NOT denigrating profit, and I’m not intending to frame the issue as pitting virtue against profit… as if maximizing one necessitated diminishing the other. Far from it. I’m simply pointing out how open discussion of people’s core values helps guard against making profitability the overwhelming value.

In the fight against Covid-19, rampant skepticism was heaped on pharmaceutical companies and logistics suppliers. Were they improperly taking advantage of the pandemic for financial gain? Skepticism about companies’ motives was also fanned by automotive lawsuits, where companies allegedly ignored concerns from employees about possible environmental and safety risks in order to save a few dollars per car. Many other examples will come to your mind. Think about it: Do you trust “big business” to care about anything but monetary gain?

Companies today need to clearly define their core values and their mission, and then connect their actions with their core values. They’ve got to look beyond the short term “bottom line.” But how should they go about defining and establishing those core values as real, outcome-determinative factors?

For this, I contend that they should look to the hearts and minds of their diverse people.

We at the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation have seen, time and again, the positively transformative effects that flow when companies and government agencies take the bold step of asking their employees to bring their core values and beliefs to bear in the workplace.

When we encourage people of faith – and atheists, and agnostics – up and down the reporting chain, to openly discuss their core beliefs and principles with management and with each other… and to listen carefully and respectfully to one another… several richly beneficial effects follow. First, simply by prompting such discussion, Management sends a much-desired message: that the core values and beliefs of their people MATTER to the way the company works. Their values and beliefs are not an obstacle. They’re not irrelevant. They are a treasured asset. They should be expressed.

Second, by inviting voluntary, open sharing of personal value systems, we enable our people to make themselves personally accountable to each other to conform to those values. In an environment where it seems profits are King, this kind of voluntary mutual accountability is countercultural. And positively transformative.

What kinds of values are we talking about here? Among many others, here are just a few specific core beliefs that employees often express when asked:

• — Failing to give credit where it’s due, and taking undue credit to oneself, tears at the fabric of community and purpose, and saps creativity. It’s a form of theft. The same applies to the practice of stifling or failing to listen to the ideas of people of any category who often are excluded by the culture.
• — A “blame and shame” culture is demoralizing. It pressures workers to hide serious problems, rather than address them.
• — Respect for fellow workers, regardless of differences, strengthens culture. (The kinds of beliefs expressed by the winners of RFBF’s “Religious Freedom Film Competition” provide additional examples).

When leaders formally open the door to discussions of core beliefs and values relevant to work, skeptics will think at first that they just want to “look good;” that behind the façade, they’re still driven by short term profitability, however it’s achieved. They’ll presume at first that coworkers who are talking about values just want to appear more virtuous than others. But with time, as the company navigates everyday operations and the sharing continues, sincerity, authenticity and connection gain credibility. Skepticism begins to dissolve and give way to solid hope.

Open this door. Then be amazed at the positive effects on your company’s true WHY.

Special thanks to Paul Michalski for several of the ideas I incorporated into this piece; including the quote from Milton Friedman.

PRESS RELEASE: In the Holy Lands, differing religious, cultural, and historical claims are connected to ongoing conflicts. In response, Medinol CEO Dr. Judith Richter founded the NIR School of the Heart to help high school students not only understand cardio-vascular career opportunities but also connect the hearts of people from different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. Dr. Richter helps students build bridges across cultures through the process of learning. As one of the graduates summed up the experience, The NIR School of the Heart “will make the whole Middle East a better place.” The program has become widely popular and currently has 826 graduates who are functioning as ambassadors for peace, out of which 225 are also pursuing careers in medical-related professions.

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation congratulates Dr. Judith Richter as a finalist for the 2021 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards. On the occasion of this nomination, Dr. Richter shared some of the core principles underlying her amazing work:

• — “Having shared goals will always lead to cooperation if a willingness to communicate is adopted and encouraged.”
• — “Embracing diversity is the basis upon which tolerance, generosity and mutual respect can be achieved.”
• — “Differences are assets to be cultivated and celebrated, rather than a reason for confrontation.”

Dr. Richter is competing for a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal, which will be announced and awarded on Aug. 24 virtually at Dare to Overcome. Dare to Overcome is the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s global intersectionality conference, highlighting the ways diverse communities support and reinforce one another to build more inclusive workplaces and peaceful societies.

Background on the Awards

The Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards are presented biennially by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, a US-based nonprofit, in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact’s Business for Peace initiative. The foundation helps educate the global business community about how religious freedom is good for business and how they can promote respect for freedom of religion or belief.

The awards are held in tandem with the opening of the Paralympic Games, including previously being held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and in Seoul in 2018. This year they will be held during RFBF’s Dare to Overcome event, Aug. 22-24, 2021, both virtually worldwide and in-person in Tokyo (due to pandemic restrictions, limited to those already in Japan) .

In the short video below, the global chair of the Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards, Dr. Brian Grim (also president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation), shares the inspiration for these awards, followed by brief reflections by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE (EIN Presswire): Washington and Tokyo – 2021 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award Finalists include CEOs/Chairs of Intel, Tyson Foods, Span Construction, Medinol & More

2021 finalists come from Australia, India, Iraq, Israel, Japan, UK & US in multiple industries: technology, construction, food, health, law, gems & education

Ten business men and women from around the world are in competition for gold, silver and bronze medals for their work in interfaith understanding, religious freedom and peace. All of the leaders are recognized for using their businesses to bridge cultural and religious divides.

“The world’s most successful companies, like Intel & Tyson Foods, by welcoming faith and belief in their workplaces are, in effect, “building” religious freedom for everyone, inclusive of all faiths and beliefs,” said Dr. Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.

Winners of the third biannual Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards will be announced and honored in a virtual global ceremony on Tuesday, Aug. 24, the day of the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. For winners in Japan, a special awards ceremony will be held at the prestigious Sophia University in Tokyo in Aug. 22, based on health protocols at the time.

Previous Awards were presented in tandem with previous Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro (2016) and in Seoul (2018), where former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Robert C. Gay, former managing director of Bain Capital, gave keynote addresses.

The awards are presented by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit, in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact’s Business for Peace initiative. The foundation helps educate the global business community about how religious freedom is good for business and how they can promote respect for freedom of religion or belief.

Finalists come from a variety of religious backgrounds and manage companies and enterprises in Australia, India, Iraq, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are given in three categories: Core Business, Philanthropy, and Advocacy.

Finalists in Core Business:

• — Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s CEO, and Sandra Rivera, executive vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and AI Group at Intel Corporation (US & Global), who have helped create a culture where people can bring their whole selves to work – faith and all – thanks to solidly incorporating religious diversity into their overall diversity & inclusion commitments.
• — John Tyson, Chairman of Tyson Foods (US & Global), was an early pioneer of building a faith-friendly workplace by recognizing the spiritual and psychological needs of all employees.
• — Khalid Khowshnaw founder of the Hemn Group (Iraq), combating any form of discrimination including that of race, religion, ethnicity, or sectarian groups by promoting people of these differing nationalities to work alongside one another in reconstruction.

Finalists in Philanthropy:

• — Dr. Judith Richter, CEO of Medinol (Israel), dedicated to the science of cardiovascular intervention, who also founded the NIR School of the Heart to help high school students not only understand cardio-vascular career opportunities but also connect the hearts of people from different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds in Israel, Jordon and the Palestinian Territories.
• — Maurice Ostro, Chair of Ostro Fayre Share Foundation (UK & Global), Vice Chair of the Council of Christians and Jews (the UK’s oldest interfaith organization) and the Founding Patron of the Faiths Forum for London. He has been an interfaith champion in business and philanthropy.
• — Dr. John Gathright founded Tree Climbing Japan, helping children of differing faiths, abilities, and challenges come together to find an increased self-confidence through embracing the challenge of climbing trees. The program’s goal is to help all children grow up like magnificent trees, standing tall and strong, kind and unique, and helping each other.

Finalists in Advocacy:

• — King Husein, Chairman and CEO of Span Construction & Engineering (US & Global), has played a critical role addressing the rising tide of restrictions on religious freedom that has swept the globe over the past decade. His contributions range from helping found the South Asian Consortium for Religion and Law Studies, to helping kick off the first-ever Business Roundtable to advance International Religious Freedom during the 2019 UN General Assembly in New York City.
• — Peter Mousaferiadis, founder of Cultural Infusion (Australia), is a pioneer in using cultural and artistic expression as a means of promoting social cohesion and interfaith understanding. Cultural Infusion has developed award winning and world leading platforms that can transform diversity and inclusion in organizations and communities and people’s understanding of cultural diversity.
• — Candice Corby, CEO of Cobra Legal Solutions (India & USA), promotes the celebration of religion and belief, encouraging employees to be their full selves including bringing their faith and beliefs to work by observing every festival and religious holiday world-wide, and also by hosting a commemoration for religions in a week known as “Cobra Life Week”.

Additional Details

The awards are presented as the culminating event of Dare to Overcome (DTO) (August 22-24, 2021), the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s global “intersectionality conference” highlighting how diverse communities support one another in building more inclusive workplaces and peaceful societies. Conference website: https://event.vconferenceonline.com/microsite/html/event.aspx?id=2056

The 2021 jury is comprised of a group of high-level experts, including from the European Union (H.E. Ján Figeľ, former Special Envoy for promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU); the NGO religious freedom community (Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice, and a former Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom); and the business & peace community (Per L. Saxegaard, Business CEO, and Founder and Executive Chairman of the Business for Peace Foundation, Oslo, Norway).

Media Inquiries:

• Dr. Brian Grim, President, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation
• Email: media@religiousfreedomandbusiness.org
• Phone: +1-410-268-7809
• Website: https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/finalists-2021
• Kenichi Shinagawa, Country Director, Dare to Overcome
• Email: k.shinagawa@dtojp.org
• Phone: +81-(0)42-458-7107
• https://dto.world/ and https://dtojp.org/

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by Kent Johnson, J.D., Senior Corporate Advisor, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation

Part of the blog series, Authenticity & Connection

I’ve shared before that, when my paternal grandparents entered the US through Ellis Island as immigrants in the 1890s, they also entered a covenant with the increasingly diverse people of America.

Here’s the deal: They agreed to work hard and honestly. They would learn the English language and learn baseball, and gradually give up some of their native culture in order to gain the benefits that were promised by US citizenship. The promised benefits included freedom to advance – through hard work and creativity – beyond the social and economic class to which they were born, freedom to worship and live in accordance with their conscience, and in short, freedom to build a new future in the New World. For some immigrants, America kept those promises; for others, it didn’t. The results would impact their descendants.

In this piece I’d like to share some observations from our forbears’ immigration experiences that are relevant to today’s worldwide workplace diversity movement. Most importantly, I’ll provide some recommendations for your workplace.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the pressure to conform to a particular brand of American culture was fierce. Each new wave of newcomers began as outcasts. The immigrant’s worth and opportunity were determined by the larger society’s perception of his conformity to their norms. The Tenement Museum in New York City provides a poignant window into the treatment of immigrants in America. The exhibits reconstruct powerful and dreadful vignettes of the hard life to which various immigrants were subjected at home and at work. They trace specific family histories for generations after that. It’s fascinating and deeply illuminating for our purposes today.

As I noted earlier, as hard as it was, the trials for European immigrants as a general rule tended to be shorter, less demeaning and less deadly than for other immigrants. Those who didn’t “look European” faced the highest hurdles. Most blacks had not come voluntarily, so there was no covenant for them; and for generations, it was impossible for many to earn a ticket out of the tenement.

These deplorable experiences, as well as the positive experiences of descendants who were able to escape the many constraints, ought to inform our approach to workplace diversity today. As diverse people increasingly enter our workforce, it’s as if they were arriving on Ellis Island, the gateway to a land of opportunity. They enter a covenant with our companies which in some ways is like a covenant of citizenship – to do the work honestly and skillfully, and to relate with us. Our companies are not countries, but my point is that we can do this far better than our forbears did. Here are a few specific thoughts in that vein, as you continue to navigate the increasing diversity of your workforce:

• ---

• 1. Clarify the covenant. Right from the start, spell out what are you asking them to be, and do, and not do. In this, make very clear that your company stands for the right of all human beings to be treated with dignity and fairness, as they themselves would like to be treated; that they will remain free to live and speak according to their beliefs, insofar as that right doesn’t actually violate the rights of others; and that your company will seek to foster friendship and even reconciliation across cultures. And of course describe the job requirements and expectations with adequate specificity.

• ---

• 2. Think of your diverse employees as immigrants to a new land, the land of your company. Many will start out feeling alone and without support. Go out of your way to be sensitive and welcoming to all; and especially to those who’ve been systematically relegated to the status of outsiders or worse because of their connection with any group, and those who feel they have been subjected to discrimination due to economic or social class, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or any other factor. Don’t presume you understand. Actively seek to understand them. Urge your existing employees to empathize.

• ---

• 3. Like my grandparents did for later-arriving immigrants, facilitate the formation of support groups of people who can serve as helpers, advocates and bridge-builders. Faith-oriented Employee Resource Groups are a wonderful case in point. Let newcomers know that your company officially welcomes people like them, and welcomes and desires their perspectives, and that you will officially promote such support groups – both for their personal benefit and for the company’s benefit.

• ---

• 4. Follow through. It’s not just about the onboarding process. Periodically pulse your employees on how you’re doing in these areas. Enable midcourse adjustments as needed.

• ---

This may seem overwhelming to some readers. To a degree, we’re all “aliens and strangers,” fresh off the boat, entering a strange and fast-changing diverse work land. If you have questions on how to accomplish these things – especially if you have questions about navigating religious diversity – contact us at the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation. We can be part of your support group.

Your company can do this well; and the entire world will be a better place because you did.

Sponsored by Empower Women Media and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, the Competition Explores How Inclusivity and Multi-Faith Living Leads to Innovation and Thriving Communities

Finalists Hail from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, France, Japan, Iraq, Egypt, and the U.S.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 7, 2021 – Los Angeles and Washington, DC – Filmmakers from around the world overcame COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns to produce award-winning short films.

She Makes Everything Beautiful by Wagma Feroz (Pakistan) was awarded the grand prize in the 2021 Religious Freedom Film Competition. A Taste of Freedom by Meshair Jirdeh (Saudi Arabia and France) and Terri Marie (US) took 1^st runner-up, and Switch On, an animated short film by Yamini Ravindran (Sri Lanka), was awarded 2^nd runner-up. The grand prize winner receives a $3,500 cash prize, 1^st runner-up $1,000, and 2^nd runner-up $500.

In She Makes Everything Beautiful, Wagma, a Muslim, tells the true story of Sonia, a Christian, who has found employment and acceptance in a multi-faith salon in Swat, Pakistan. The Muslim owner of the salon intentionally hires religious minority women knowing they are discriminated against and often cannot find work. This thriving salon dares to overcome cultural and religious divides to make all things beautiful.

A Taste of Freedom is Meshair Jirdeh’s personal story of leaving Saudi Arabia to find religious freedom in a new land. On her journey, she meets the love of her life, a chef, and together they build a restaurant business.

Switch On, an animated film by Yamini Ravindran and her team at the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka, features a Muslim woman hesitant to “switch on” her computer camera during an online meeting because she wears a hijab. Capitalizing on the social constructs of the all-too-familiar Zoom meeting, the film exposes the ramifications of restrictions on religious expression in the workplace.

“It is particularly impressive that people of one faith focused on empowering people of other faiths,” said Dr. Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. “Indeed, a hallmark of true religious freedom is when people stand for the right of all to enjoy the same freedoms.”

“Storytelling is one of the fastest ways to shift culture,” said Shirin Taber, Director of Empower Women Media. “It also helps people address difficult or taboo subjects like religious freedom. Through short films, women can share their religious freedom stories in positive ways.”

In addition to the top three films, A Call to Lead by Machiko Sato (Japan) won the Presidential Global Challenge Film Award. Two other films won Inclusivity Awards: Pathways to Peace by Sana Zahid (Pakistan) and Camp C414 by Aasra Mansour and Mohammed Abd Alamir (Iraq).

“Machiko Sato’s film, A Call to Lead, takes this competition to a new level,” said Dr. Brian Grim. “She challenges an entire nation – Japan – to take a lead in advancing religious freedom around the world. Indeed, with the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics, Japan has an opportunity to make religious freedom a global export.”

Empower Women Media invited 12 highly respected judges to review the short films, including Lou Ann Sabatier, Communications Director for 21Wilberforce, Ed Brown, Secretary General of Stefanus Alliance International, and other leading voices for religious freedom.

Selected films will be showcased at the IRF Summit in Washington, DC, July 13-15.

The winning films will be celebrated during a global awards ceremony at Dare to Overcome, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s biannual Business & Peace Festival in Tokyo and online on August 22^nd. The global event coincides with the International Day Commemorating Victims of Religious Violence and Hatred and will be hosted by keynote speakers Dr. Brian Grim and Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Registration for the event can be found here.

This is the fourth annual Religious Freedom Film Competition sponsored by Empower Women Media in association with the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.

For more information about the short films, female media producers, and the August 22^nd film festival, contact the Empower Women Media Director, Shirin Taber, at shirin@visualstory.org or www.empowerwomen.media.

Honorable Mentions: Asha (Hope) by Arpudhamani (India), We Are One by Jennifer Pinto (India), Drawing the Soul of a Woman by Carla Salloum (Lebanon), We by Ahmar & Mariam Rehman (Pakistan), Women Ablaze by Alicia Crum (US), Change Begins with Us by Nivedita Devraj (India), Afghanistan Fire Fighter Ladies by Lina Qurbanzadz (Afghanistan), and Treasure in Jars of Clay by Abisha Manoj Kumar (India).

Contacts:

• Shirin Taber, Empower Women Media (Los Angeles)
• shirin@visualstory.org – +1-949-235-5148
• Empower Women Media website

• Brian Grim, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (Washington DC)
• media@religousfreedomandbusiness.org– +1-410-268-7809
• 2021 Film Competition website

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Washington, DC

Kathy Ireland, Chair, CEO and Chief Designer of kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW), will receive the inaugural Business IRF Champion Award at the IRF Summit in Washington DC on July 15 for going above and beyond the call of duty in advancing religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, all the time.

“Kathy is known throughout the globe for her entrepreneurial success, rising from supermodel to super-mogul. She has been featured on the cover of Forbes more times than on Sports Illustrated, and she recently shattered glass ceilings with kathy ireland Worldwide being named the 15^th most powerful brand in the world, the highest ranking for a woman-owned and individually-owned company, ” said Dr. Brian Grim, chair of the business selection committee for the upcoming IRF Summit. “And now it is fitting that Kathy be recognized for her activism in support of all people persecuted for their faith and beliefs around the world,” adds Dr. Grim.

In August 2014, ISIS militants swept through the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in a deliberate attempt to annihilate the Yezidis and other religious minorities, employing brutal tactics including mass executions, rape, and sexual enslavement of young women. As this horrific genocide unfolded, Kathy not only lobbied Congress to respond, but responded herself by supporting women-led initiatives to rescue Yezidis and address the hatred and prejudices that created an environment where such atrocities could occur. To this day, almost 3,000 Yezidi women and children remain missing and almost 300,000 Yezidis still live in displacement camps in northern Iraq.

Kathy’s engagement did not stop when the genocide did. This August 22, Kathy is co-hosting with the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation a charity auction with all proceeds to directly provide business and livelihood opportunities for Yezidi women struggling to recover from the genocide.

“It is a tremendous honor and very humbling to receive this honor,” says Ms. Ireland. “It is our duty and responsibility, for all of us, to fight for everyone’s right to religious freedom, no matter what religion you choose to practice. It is basic human rights. Thank you Dr. Brian Grim and everyone at the IRF Summit for bringing attention to the plight of so many who are deprived of the basic right to religious freedom, and for working tirelessly to combat those who try to inflict this cruelty upon others.”

Kathy will receive Business IRF Hero Award at the Closing Dinner of the 2021 IRF Summit, which begins at 6:30 pm on Thursday, July 15, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C.

The IRF Summit will bring together a bi-partisan and broad coalition that passionately supports religious freedom around the globe for a three day in-person event in Washington D.C., July 13-15, with a virtual option for participation. Kathy will also speak during the virtual event.

For more information and tickets to the in-person summit, visit https://irfsummit.com/. To register for the virtual summit (free), click here.

To participate in and/or learn more about the charity auction, email contact@religiousfreedomandbusiness.org