A US-born campaigner for women’s rights in Greece and the wife and mother of two former prime ministers, Margaret Papandreou,
has died at the age of 102.
Greek President Constantine Tassoulas announced her death on Friday, describing her as an influential figure who contributed to major social and political reforms affecting women in the country.
Tassoulas said Papandreou “supported and inspired the reform of family law, the breakthrough in social and political rights, and the modernisation of women’s status in Greek society.”
He added that she was also involved in campaigns against cancer, tuberculosis and polio.
“She loved Greece deeply. She was the wife of a Prime Minister and the mother of a Prime Minister, but above all an active citizen, as she treated public affairs as her own,” Tassoulas said.
Local media reports said Papandreou died at her home in Athens, only days before her 103rd birthday.
Born Margaret Chant in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1923, she met Greek socialist politician Andreas Papandreou while he was teaching economics at Harvard University. They married in 1951
A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Papandreou became a founding member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as PASOK, which became a dominant force in Greek politics following the end of the country’s dictatorship in 1974.
She also helped establish the Women’s Union of Greece in 1976 and served as its chairwoman for several years.
Her influence grew further after Andreas Papandreou became Greek prime minister in 1981.
She played a role in advancing reforms that abolished dowry, legalised abortion and introduced civil marriage.
Papandreou, popularly known as Margarita in Greece, remained a public figure after her husband divorced her in 1989 to marry an air hostess.
Reflecting on their marriage at the time, she told the Los Angeles Times,
“I’ll always treasure that portion of my life I had with Andreas. I do not want to spoil it with thoughts of revenge,”
She had four children, including George Papandreou, who served as Greek prime minister from 2009 to 2011 during the early years of the country’s prolonged debt crisis.
AFP
