Meet our cast of world-changing women To celebrate International Women’s Day, we present 12 of FT Weekend’s best reads on leading lights from politics, business, sport and the arts © Getty Images Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: ‘They were sure I was a nobody’The exiled Belarus opposition leader on a year of protest — and why she believes Lukashenko’s days in power are numbered How Black Lives Matter went global, by co-founder Patrisse Cullors‘We galvanised people to ask themselves: did they show up for black life, or did they not?’ Oxford vaccine professor Sarah Gilbert on working as the world watchesThe scientist leading a team on a global rescue mission still had to raise money to fund her research Hilary Mantel: ‘I think of writing as the arena of peril’The author of the Wolf Hall trilogy on what’s next, doctors and why writing is like fighting Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti: ‘There’s nothing permanent about us’The International Space Station veteran on the new space economy, and what life in orbit taught her about humanity Maria Grazia Chiuri MMXX: the Roman vision at the heart of Dior The creative director at one of France’s most venerable fashion houses invites us into her Italian home More from this Series Annie Leibovitz: ‘I’m frustrated about the word ‘celebrity’ ’The photographer of the famous on the power of the image — and why she still feels like an outsider Surfer Maya Gabeira on riding the biggest wave of the yearShe has put a near-fatal fall and surfing misogyny behind her to claim a record Joy Labinjo, an artist making black lives visibleAt only 25, the British-Nigerian painter is out to tackle ignorance about race — and is now exhibiting in Art Basel’s OVR: Miami Beach Atlantic star: the 21-year-old woman rowing the ocean aloneThe backmarker in a trans-Atlantic race, rowing novice Jasmine Harrison has been at sea for six weeks and is only just past halfway What HIV taught Matshidiso Moeti about Covid-19How the WHO’s Africa head brought her experience battling previous epidemics to help shape the continent’s response Elif Shafak on the pleasures of too many booksTake a look around the novelist’s London home
