Education, Culture, Art, economy

One night last September, atop Iceland’s Langjokull glacier, a whiteout storm whipped up 70 mph winds as 11 women emerged from their tents and put on skis—some for the first time. The women were there to participate in the first training in the lead-up to the 2018 Women’s Euro-Arabian North Pole Expedition, an all-female voyage to ski the last degree of the North Pole. This time next year, the women will be dropped off by helicopter around the 89-degrees-north mark, where they will set out to ski approximately 60 miles to reach 90 degrees north—the geographic North Pole. They’ll ski five to 10 miles a day in temperatures as low as -40 degrees on moving sea ice that can
fracture without warning—but overcoming such obstacles is only part of the mission.

The real purpose of the frigid trek is to foster dialogue between women from Western and Arab cultures. The participants, selected from nearly 1,000 applicants, come from European nations, including Slovenia and Sweden, and Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “There’s such a divide between Western and Eastern cultures,” says leader Felicity Aston, 39, who made history in 2012 as the first woman to ski solo across Antarctica. “There’s a huge lack of understanding, and it’s something we’re going to need in order to solve the problems facing us.” To that end, when they’re not traversing over ice, they’ll discuss women’s role in society and how that differs among their countries.

The meet-ups are already paying off: “Being with a group of women I’m not used to interacting with has expanded the way I see the world,” says Susan Gallon, 36, a French marine biologist. “We’re very similar,” adds Lamees Nijem, 26, a Kuwaiti artist. “The 11 of us are united in our goal—accomplishing it should prove what unity can do.” —Jaclyn Norton
UNITED STATES

URBAN WARRIOR

Citizen Jane’s fight to save NYC will inspire your next protest

If city-planning giant Robert Moses had had his way, Lower Manhattan would have a monster expressway running through it today. New Yorkers have Jane Jacobs to thank for the culture the city was able to maintain. In Citizen Jane, in theaters April 21, director Matt Tyrnauer tells the story of how Jacobs, an activist and author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, led an uprising against the famed developer and saved NYC from what some say would have been the biggest disaster in urban "renewal" history. "Jacobs has many lessons to teach us, especially about speaking the truth to power and beating political players at their own game," Tyrnauer says. Think of the film as a playbook for starting your own revolution. —Kayla Webley Adler