The 2013 annual Thakore Visiting Scholar Award, co-presented by Simon Fraser University, goes to Lee Lakeman, a longtime former collective member and staffer at Vancouver’s Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter (VRRWS).  SFU’s Institute for the Humanities and its JS Woodsworth Chair, the India Club of Vancouver and the Thakore Charitable Foundation bestow the award on people who emulate qualities valued by Mahatma Gandhi.

The Indian leader, assassinated in 1948, was committed to realizing truth, justice and political freedom through non-violent measures, such as peaceful civil disobedience.

Since the early 1970s, when she first discovered the extent of violence against women globally, Lakeman has worked tirelessly to shelter female victims of violence and fight for their societal rights.

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