Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti 17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), professionally known as Dalida, was a French singer and actress, born in Egypt to Italian parents. She won the Miss Egypt beauty contest in 1954 and began a 31-year singing career in 1956, selling 170 million albums and singles worldwide. She died by suicide in 1987.
Wälättä P̣eṭros; 1592–1642) was a saint in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Her hagiography, The Life-Struggles of Walatta Petros (Gädlä Wälättä P̣eṭros) was written in 1672. She was mainly known for resisting conversion to Roman Catholicism, forming many religious Etiopian orthodox communities, and performing miracles for those seeking asylum from oppressive kings. Walatta Petros continued as the abbess of her mobile religious community, leading it with her woman friend Ǝḫətä Krəstos.
Chavela Vargas 17 April 1919 – 5 August 2012 was a Costa Rican-born Mexican lesbian singer. She was especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras, but she is also recognized for her contribution to other genres of popular Latin American music.
Katarina Taikon (29 July 1932, in Almby, Örebro – 30 December 1995, in Ytterhogdal, Hälsingland, Sweden) was a Swedish Romany activist, leader in the civil rights movement, writer and actor, from the Kalderash people. Rosa Taikon 30 July 1926 - 1 June 2017 was a Swedish Romani silversmith, actress and Romani rights activist. She was the big sister of Katarina Taikon. Her silver jewelry has been exhibited in many galleries and museums such as the National Museum of Fine Arts.
Himiko also read as Pimiku c. 170–248 CE was a shamaness-queen of Yamataikoku in Wa (ancient Japan). According to Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom (220–265), and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler following decades of warfare among the kings of Wa.
Umm Kulthum was known for her extraordinary vocal ability and style, and she was one of the greatest and most influential singers of the 20th century, where she has sold over 80 million records worldwide. Umm Kulthum is considered a national icon in her native Egypt and has been dubbed as The voice of Egypt.
Cécile Fatiman born around 1791 was a Haitian vodou priestess, a mambo (Voodoo). She was mostly famous for her participation in the vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman, which was considered to be one of the starting points of the Haitian Revolution and later independence.
Rani Rudrama Devi was a monarch of the Kakatiya dynasty in the Deccan Plateau from 1263 until her death. She was one of the very few women to rule as monarchs in India and promoted a male image in order to do so.
Rosa Luxemburg 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919 was a Polish-Jewish Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist, anti-war activist, and revolutionary socialist thinker who became a naturalized German citizen at the age of 28. As a political theoretician, she developed a humanitarian theory of Marxism, stressing democracy and revolution.
Tamar of Georgia 1160 – 1213 reigned as King of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, presiding over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age. Tamar was successful in neutralizing this opposition and embarked on an energetic foreign policy aided by the decline of the hostile Seljuq Turks.
Tomoe Gozen 1157–1247, was a samurai warrior, known for her bravery and strength. She is believed to have fought in and survived the Genpei War. She later became the subject of legends, plays, and poems. Today Tomoe Gozen is celebrated as a folk hero during Japanese festivals and has inspired comic books and cartoon characters.
Taimaskha Molova, a woman warrior from Gekhi became a legend of the Caucasus wars in her own time. Fought in ten years against Russian colonizers from Black Sea to Derbent before captivity and she sadly never went to the battle again, once released.
Mahvash 1920-1961 was a singer, dancer, film actress and stage performer. Mahvash was in her heyday in 1950s Iran when women entertainers were still frowned upon both by elite society and religious authorities as Iran's most famous femme fatale.
Amrita Sher-Gil 1913 – 1941 was an eminent Hungarian-Indian painter. She has been called "one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century" and a "pioneer" in modern Indian art.
Enheduanna in 23rd century BC was an Sumeran princess and high priestess who was perhaps the earliest known writer in history. Identified as a daughter of King Sargon I, she was appointed high priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sîn) in his holy city of Ur, a role of great political importance that was often held by royal daughters.
Dihya was a Amazigh queen, religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to Arab Islamic expansion in Northwest Africa, the Aures region. She died around 702-703 AD during the warfare.
Hypatia, 350 or 370 - 415 was the mathematician, astronomer and philosopher from Alexandria. Hypatia contributed in many ways to math, with one of her contributions being that she edited the work on The Conics of Apollonius. This was the concept that developed ideas of parabolas, hyperbolas and ellipses. With her contribution in this book, Hypatia made the concepts easier for people to understand, thus enabling the work survive through many centuries.
Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba c. 1583 – 1663, was a 17th-century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in Angola. She came to power as an ambassador after demonstrating a proclivity to tactfully diffuse foreign crisis, as she regained control of the Portuguese fortress of Ambaca.
Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua 1744- 1781, was a pioneering indigenous leader against Spanish rule in South America, and a martyr for Peruvian independence. With her husband Túpac Amaru II, she led a rebellion against the Spanish and suffered martyrdom of execution by the Spanish when the revolt failed.
Asenath Barzani 1560– death ca 1635/1670 was considered the first female rabbi of Jewish history; additionally, she also were the oldest recorded female Kurdish leader in history. Her writings demonstrate her mastery of Hebrew, Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and Kabbalah.
Queen Boran or Purandokt 590–628 was the daughter of the Sasanian emperor Khosrau II. She was the first and one of few women on the throne in Persian history. After few years of ruling though, she was found suffocated by a pillow in her bed.
Aliya Moldagulova 1925-1944 A Kazakh survivor of Stalin's purge on her family, she later filed a waiver to join the Red Army and became a sniper. She died from a gunshot wound that day and was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union badge on June 4, 1944 and Order of Lenin. Her burial can be found in Monakovo, Pskov.
Iwa Kereti Evaline Skerrett 1890-1947 Descended from King Topi, of Southern Maori, and Ngai Tahu chief Pokene, she took the stage name Princess Iwa. Her singing and presentation of Maori culture to audiences across Britain made Princess Iwa a household name for a decade from 1909.
Atossa – Daughter of Achamenian Empire, the daughter of Cyrus the Great, Achamenian empress and wife of two Achamenian kings, Cambyses and Darius and mother of Xerxes is the most prominent woman in the history of ancient Iran. And the first known breastcancer patient.
Frida Kahlo 1907-1954 was a Mexican painter, most known for her self-portraits and pro-communist arts. Her work are now being celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition.
Pharaoh Hatshepsut 1508–1458 BC was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC. She is generally as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty.
Lucy Parsons 1853- 1942 was an African Mexican Native U.S labour organiser, radical socialist & anarchist. She is remembered as a powerful orator.
Forough Farrokhzad 1935-1967 was an Iranian most influential and feminist poet and film director. She was a controversial modernist poet and an icon writing from a woman's point of view.
Noor Inayat Khan -1914 – 1944 was an Allied Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War who was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian decoration in the United Kingdom. As an SOE agent, she became the first female radio operator to be sent from Britain into occupied France to aid the French Resistance.
Artemisia I of Caria, Grand Admiral, birth around 520 BCE and possibly died after 485 BCE, was queen of Halicarnassus, a city of Dorian Greeks and Carians in the Achaemenid satrapy of Caria. As a overlord and warrior queen, for Achaemenid Empire, she joined Xerxes I, king of Persia and became the first woman as Grand Admiral in the navy.