Zainab Salbi
Zainab Salbi
Zainab Salbiis an author, women's rights activist, humanitarian, social entrepreneur, and media commentator who is the founder and former CEOof Washington-based Women for Women International...
NationalityIraqi
ProfessionActivist
CountryIraq
discrimination willing ifs
No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.
children years want
I don't have a child, so Women for Women is like my child. But I always said I would step down after 20 years. I didn't want to be a 60-year-old woman holding on to something I created when I was 23.
war fighting people
I find it amazing that the only group of people who are not fighting and not killing and not pillaging and not burning and not raping, and the group of people who are mostly — though not exclusively — who are keeping life going in the midst of war, are not included in the negotiating table.
military years world
One year of the world’s military spending equals 700 years of the U.N. budget and equals 2,928 years of the U.N. budget allocated for women.
violence target injustice
The injustice is that women continue to be the main target of violence both during wartime and peacetime and yet there is still a lack of a public outrage.
nice painful clean
Where has change ever been clean and nice? It has always been messy and painful.
stronger nations
Stronger women build stronger nations.
loss speaks-out rights
As women, we must speak out, speak up, say no to our inheritance of loss and yes to a future of women-led dialogue about women's rights and value.
country growing-up everyday
Growing up under Saddam's rule, I witnessed many injustices occurring everyday in my country and yet I could not do anything to prevent them.
inspirational change risk
Changes don't happen in the world by playing it safe, taking risks is the way to change the world.
falling-in-love war live-life
Do you know that people fall in love in war and go to school and go to factories and hospitals and get divorced and go dancing and go playing and live life?
past leader silence
Being a leader for me is about having the courage to speak the truth, and live the truth, despite attempts to silence our thoughts, feelings, and past experiences.
giving give-and-take middle
Everything is give and take. The solutions are in the middle not in the extremity of the situation.
alliances lines firsts
Like life, peace begins with women. We are the first to forge lines of alliance and collaboration across conflict divides.