The United States has honoured Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyer Fawzia Karim Firoze with 2024 International Women of Courage Award.

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden hosted the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards ceremony at the White House on March 4 (US time).

Secretary Blinken said the United States stands with every woman of courage working to build greater stability, greater equality, and greater opportunity.

"And we are committed to knocking down the barriers that prevent women and girls from reaching their full potential," he said at the ceremony.

"That’s why championing the rights of women and girls in all of their diversity is a central part of our foreign policy," Blinken said.

Over the past three years, he said they have put forward concrete strategies, policies, and programmes to support women and girls around the world.

"It’s not simply rhetorical, it’s practical, from increasing their political participation to ensuring that they’re parts of things like the clean energy transition," Blinken said.

Last year, US President Joe Biden requested a doubling of foreign aid to promote gender equity abroad – an historic $2.6 billion.

Fawzia has fought for the rights of marginalized groups for more than three decades, said the US State Department of State.

She is currently the head of her own law chamber and serves as the Chairperson for the Foundation for Law and Development (FLAD).

Under her leadership, FLAD won a ruling determining that the Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy of 2015 was inadequate to protect the rights of domestic workers.

Fawzia has personally filed approximately 3,000 cases on behalf of garment workers against their employers and helped establish the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Union Federation (BIGUF) and the Domestic Workers Guidelines, said the US Department of State on Friday.

Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque