Episode 36: Meet Priya Dhanani, Senior Program Officer on the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality team at The Asia Foundation — Today on Margaritas with Marguerita Cheng, CFP® Pro

Listen to the podcast on Inkandescent Radio What is the role of gender inequality as an underlying cause of gender-based violence — and the different types of violence?

"Gender inequality is an underlying cause of gender-based violence and the different types of violence," explains Priya Dhanani, Senior Program Officer on the Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality team at The Asia Foundation. "There are many types of economic and financial violence, which doesn't get talked about enough."

A Note from Marguerita Cheng, CFP® Pro — We invite you to tune in for this week’s episode of my show, Margaritas with Marguerita, where for 15 minutes each Friday at 5pm EST, women learn from industry experts how to flex their financial muscles.

Today’s guest: Priya Dhanani, Senior Program Officer on the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality team at The Asia Foundation

Our topic: Economic and financial abuse that Priya has witnessed, and how we can all help women and girls to have more control over their bodies, and lives

We discuss: 

  • The role of gender inequality as an underlying cause of gender-based violence and the different types of violence
  • Types of economic and financial violence, “which doesn’t get talked about enough,” Priya insists.
  • What the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality team is working on currently and moving forward

About Priya: Priya Dhanani is a Senior Program Officer on the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality team at The Asia Foundation. She provides technical assistance on addressing gender-based violence (GBV), including human trafficking violence against women and girls and strengthening trauma-informed services for GBV survivors.

Previously, Priya led GBV programming and training in Bangladesh, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Nepal, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Thailand. Before this, she oversaw a human trafficking prevention program where she developed a trafficking prevention school-based curriculum used in Serbia, Russia, Uganda, and the US and worked as a case manager providing direct services to survivors of human trafficking. Priya incorporates the theory of feminism oppression and power to address GBV and decolonize international development.

She currently serves on the board of a DC-based NGO called the Asian Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project. Priya holds a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and Women Studies from Georgia State University and a master’s degree in Sociology from George Washington University. She was also a part-time sociology professor.

Learn more: Click here to read an article in The George Washington University magazine featuring Priya — The Dark Truths of Human Trafficking: How teens and adults can overcome myths about child sex trafficking and take a hard look at their own biases.

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