Women's Activism NYC

Manal Al-Sharif

1979 - Today

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“The rain begins with a single drop.” Manal al- Sharif is an author, public speaker, and a columnist. Manal has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world and is a voice advocating for women's rights and empowerment. She became the first Saudi woman to specialize in Information Security and started her career at Saudi Aramco, one of the largest oil companies in the world. In 2011, she had co-founded the #Women2Drive movement, challenging the ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia. Al-Sharif was also arrested for the act of driving because she was a women. In order to be released, she had to agree to never drive again on Saudi lands and to not do any interviews or speak about it. Manal continued fighting in our social media savvy world through an online campaign, using the hashtags #Women2Drive and #IAmMyOwnGuardian - an effort to end male guardianship. She also used digital platforms to help domestic helpers leave jail and to codify the first anti-domestic violence law in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, she won the first Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. Manal has also gone on to speak at a Ted Talk, Harvard, the United Nations, UNESCO, the Obama Summit, Google, Yahoo, etc. Manal's speech at the Oslo Freedom Forum was one of the 75 speeches selected to be published in the book, Speeches of Note by Shaun Usher. One of Manal's best sellers is, 'Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening' which was an intimate story of growing up in one of the most patriarchal societies in the world. In 2014, Manal won the Most Inspiring Arab Women Award in Arabian Business and, in 2018, the Woman of the Year Award in Glamour Magazine.

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