Zahara Jolie-Pitt Joined Her Mom’s Latest Meeting With Lawmakers

Wherever Angelina Jolie goes, at least one of her six children is never far behind. Lately, that’s been particularly true of her 16-year-old daughter Zahara, who’s proven particularly fond of all manner of mother-daughter dates. As proven by their latest outing, she’s just like her mom in feeling equally at home wearing glitzy gowns on the red carpet as she is talking politics with lawmakers on Washington, D.C. On Thursday, the pair headed to the capitol for a series of meetings with Texas representative Sheila Jackson Lee and Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski, as well as advocates from groups like the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. As was the case this past September, Jolie was there to push for renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, the 1994 legislation that Lee has been attempting to update for years.

On Instagram, Jolie detailed her vision for “modern[izing] and strengthen[ing]” the VAWA. First and foremost, it’s about inclusivity: She’s hoping to expand the VAWA’s protections to include children, communities of color, survivors, and those who live in rural parts of America. “We need reforms including judicial training, trauma-informed court processes that minimize the risk of harm to children, grant programs for technology to detect bruising across all skin tones and create non-biased forensic evidence collection, and protections for the most vulnerable,” the 46-year-old actor wrote.

“I want to thank Ms. Jolie and her daughter Zahara, for their compassionate leadership around the world,” Lee noted in her own Instagram post. Looks like Jolie is succeeding in her parenting goals. “I try to lead by example and be kind and gracious, as my mother was—and loving and tolerant,” she said of her approach to motherhood in 2019. “But when there’s a fight that needs to be had, get in there. We need to prepare the next generation because there’s so much happening in the world—they’re up against it.”