A life in the company of feisty women: Laura Sasman is the new director of Sister Namibia.

Born in the beginning of the 1960s in the then Old Location in Windhoek, Laura Sasman grew up and was shaped in, what she considers, the only truly working class neighbourhood in Namibia, Khomasdal.

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For the eldest child in a family with five siblings (four sisters and a brother), childhood consisted of going to school, (mostly) carefree playing and listening and dancing to everything from the Bee Gees, Billy Joel and Joan Baez to the Mohatella Queens, Percy Sledge and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Homework was often forgotten or pushed to the back burner. Taste memories from childhood include Aunty Dolly "se melkkleitjies" and her mother's Sunday chicken-and-potato roasts.

What stood out at this time were the relative absence of adults and the influence of strange and wonderful play and school mates, who made an indelible impression on her. Apart from her mother and aunties, she grew up with strong women role models in the persons of Richardine Kloppers who became an icon in the Khomasdal community in her life time, as well as "Juffrou" Hugo, whose own children probably still are begrudging the girls in Khomasdal for their mother's unwavering dedication to the " jong dogters bond". The country at the time was in the throes of a border war with South Africa and this contributed to the shaping of a political consciousness.

Working with strong and dedicated women

A strong-headed mother made education of her girls a priority at a time when it was expected that girls in Khomasdal would finish high school and get married. School was followed by studies in South Africa, the United States and Germany. Beatrice Sandelowski played a significant part in this aspect of Laura's life.

Working life started as a teacher. Laura now had the privilege to work

with yet another living icon, this time Otillie Abrahams, with whom she sometimes disagreed, but who she continues to admire for her single-minded and dogged dedication to education in this country. For a short period, Laura worked with Gwen Lister and Jean Sutherland. The short stint at The Namibian was followed by her entry into NGO work, first at the Namibia Development Trust, led at the time by yet another pioneering and iconic woman in Namibia, Lindi Hartung, and then at the PEACE Centre with Gudrun Kober as tireless champion to make high quality psychological services available to all Namibians.

Throughout, Laura married and became mother of two children, worked with Women and Law in Southern Africa in Swaziland, and lived between Namibia, Swaziland and Germany.

Laura joined Sister Namibia as director in the beginning of October this year. "People always have expectations of what women are supposed to be like, and these expectations almost inevitably have to do with women assuming subservient roles and roles of carers (of children, of husbands, of the sick and the elderly)," Laura said, when asked about her view on the role of women in our society. "However, it is difficult for me to ascribe specific roles to women, as these have - for all practical purposes - disappeared. I find the concept of 'women's roles' archaic. What has to change is the assumption that there are women-specific roles."