Meet our cast of world-changing womenTo 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 ImagesSvetlana 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 numberedHow 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 researchHilary 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 fightingAstronaut 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 humanityMaria 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 homeMore from this SeriesAnnie 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 outsiderSurfer 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 BeachAtlantic 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 responseElif Shafak on the pleasures of too many booksTake a look around the novelist’s London home
