A teenage socialist guerrilla who withstood imprisonment and torture, Rousseff is the first female president of Brazil. Aged 63, she is said to be a tough, no-nonsense manager, who won power by promising economic stability, to reduce poverty and improve education and healthcare. She also promised to improve the lot of women, saying in her inaugaration speech: "I would like for fathers and mothers to look into their daughters' eyes today and tell them: 'Yes, women can.'" She vowed that nine of her 37 ministers would be women – a record for Brazil. (Although critics noted she not only ignored women's issues during her election campaign, but that the twice-divorced grandmother also publicly reversed her position on the legal right to an abortion to placate the religious right and underwent several rounds of plastic surgery to gain her place.)
The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant her childhood was affluent until the death of her father when she was just 14 when her life changed dramatically. The family struggled financially and Rousseff became involved with socialist and workers groups - eventually joining Palmares Armed Revolutionary Vanguard, which seized foreign diplomats for ransom and shot foreign torture experts sent to train the generals' death squads (although Rousseff says she never used any weapons herself.) She was captured and tortured. After her release she returned to University, had a daughter with her second husband and started working for the government, eventually becoming finance chief of Porto Alegre, the state capital. In 2000 she threw her lot in with Lula and his Partido dos Trabalhadores, or Workers' Party.
O jornal britânico "The Guardian" colocou a presidente brasileira Dilma Rousseff em sua lista das cem mulheres mais inspiradoras da atualidade, publicada nesta terça-feira.
Na lista, que é publicada no Dia Internacional da Mulher, Dilma aparece na categoria "Política" ao lado de outras dez personalidades, como a ex-primeira-ministra britânica Margaret Thatcher, a secretária de Estado americana, Hillary Clinton, a presidente da Libéria, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, e a ativista birmanesa Aung San Suu Kyi.
O jornal descreve a presidente brasileira como "uma guerrilheira socialista adolescente que enfrentou prisão e tortura" e que é considerada uma "administradora dura e pragmática".
O texto cita ainda a promessa de Dilma de melhorar as condições de vida das mulheres e de ter mulheres no comando de nove dos 37 Ministérios de seu governo, um número recorde na história do Brasil.
No entanto, o "The Guardian" fala também sobre as críticas de que, durante a campanha presidencial, Dilma ignorou assuntos relacionados à mulher e reverteu publicamente sua posição sobre o aborto para acalmar os religiosos, além de que teria, segundo os críticos, feito diversas cirurgias plásticas para "ganhar o seu lugar".
"Ela já está enfrentando um grande teste --as enchentes recentes que mataram centenas e enterraram cidades inteiras", diz o jornal.
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