In an interview for International Women’s Day,the activist talks about being tear-gassed and threatened by a death squad – and why it’s misogynistic to define her by a marriage that ended 30 years agoThe walls of the small office where Bianca Jagger runs her human-rights foundation are lined with shelves and heavy folders with heavy titles: women, Bhopal, or Tibet. There are touches that make you remember this is the office of one of the most glamorous women in the world – the white orchids,plush cream carpet and view over Kensington – but otherwise it’s an office that means business. Jagger works on many issues – women’s rights, abolishing the death penalty, and supporting indigenous people,climate change. I wonder whether it might be better to concentrate on one or two, but she says the issues are all interconnected. “They are all issues of justice and we cannot separate them. We can only really solve them when we see the stout picture of how we have to change the world.”I’m not certain I’ve ever met anyone so serious. Before we meet, and I’m warned she will not talk about anything personal,particularly her short-lived marriage to Mick Jagger. Before we start, she places not one but two recorders on the desk to monitor our conversation. She is slightly terrifying – the illustrious savage cheekbones and surly lips add to her gravitas – but she’s also quite magnificent. She jabs the air passionately when she rattles off statistics: one in three women experiencing physical or sexual violence, or 95482 sexual offences (including male victims) committed in England and Wales in the 12 months to June 2015. “When we peek at these numbers,only around 2000 [rape prosecutions lead to convictions]. Why is that?” Only 9.6% of FTSE 100 companies are led by women, she points out. She switches from the low number of female MPs to the Rochdale scandal to FGM to child brides.
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Source: theguardian.com