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Caroline Cox is a remarkable lady.\xa06 July 2016 is her 79th Birthday. She is mother to 2 sons and a daughter as well as grandmother to 10 children. But she is no ordinary grandmother who likes to sit at home knitting, baking cakes and watching television.
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\nShe\xa0has been accused by some of being a secret agent because of her ability to enter countries whose oppressive governments are intent\xa0on keeping her out. Her work in protecting the rights of Muslim women from oppression through Sharia courts in the UK has bizarrely also led to her being called Islamophobic.
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\nShe\xa0was created a Life Peer in 1982 for her contributions to education and has served as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005. Lady Cox now sits in the Lords as a crossbencher and is a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Sudan, India, Nigeria, Uganda, and Burma.
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\nIn 2003 she founded the relief organisation HART. Her humanitarian aid work has taken her on many missions to conflict zones, allowing her to obtain first hand evidence of the human rights violations and humanitarian needs. Areas travelled include the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh (where she has been so far \xa083 times); Sudan; Nigeria; Uganda; the Karen; Karenni; Shan and Chin peoples in the jungles of Burma; and communities suffering from conflict in Indonesia. She has also visited North Korea helping to promote Parliamentary initiatives and medical programmes. Additionally Caroline has been instrumental in helping to change the former Soviet Union policies for orphaned and abandoned children from institutional to foster family care.
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\nIn recognition of her work in the international humanitarian and human rights arenas she has received a huge number of awards. She had been awarded the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland; the prestigious Wilberforce Award; the International Mother Teresa Award from the All India Christian Council; the Mkhitar Gosh Medal conferred by the President of the Republic of Armenia; and the anniversary medal presented by Lech Walesa, the former President of Poland, at the 25th anniversary of the Polish Solidarity Movement. Lady Cox has also been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Honorary Doctorates by universities in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Russian Federation and Armenia.
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\nDo join us on this podcast as we discuss with Baroness Cox her fascinating life:
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\n\tThe influence of her father , Robert McNeill Love, an internationally renown surgeon.
\n\tHer life long battle with shyness, depression and what she calls 'faithless fearful dread'.
\n\tHer \xa040 year marriage to Dr Murray Newall Cox until his death in 1997. He was a renown psychiatrist who applied insights from Shakespeare to his forensic patients.
\n\tHer unexpected transition from nursing to sociology.
\n\tA 5 year crucible of fire in becoming a lecturer at the Polytechnic of North London in 1972 when it was infiltrated by Marxists and Communists.
\n\tThe serialisation in 1975 of these experiences in 'The Times' newspaper by the journalist Bernard Levin of a book she co-authored called \xa0'The Rape of Reason'. His description of the Polytechnic of North London at the time as "In All It's Brutality, The Making Of An Intellectual Concentration Camp."
\n\tComing to the attention of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1982 to become a life peer in the House of Lords.
\n\tThe important work she is currently doing in the UK to ensure that Muslim women are not discriminated against by Sharia courts.
\n\tHer remarkable journey of being a nurse and social scientist by intention and a baroness by astonishment.
\n\tWhere she finds the courage and passion to show grit as well as be so determined and resilient.
\n\tHer message to those who look ahead to what to do in the second half of t...