About Zainab

Zainab Salbi is the EP and Host of Through Her Eyes at Yahoo News and the author of Freedom is an Inside Job.
At the age of 23, Zainab founded Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organization dedicated to serving women survivors of wars by offering support, tools, and access to life-changing skills to move from crisis and poverty to stability and economic self-sufficiency. Under her leadership as the organization’s CEO (1993-2011), the organization grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to more than 478,000 marginalized  women in 8 conflict areas. It also distributed more than $120 million in direct aid and micro credit loans that impacted more than 1.7 million family members.
In her move to journalism and media, Zainab created and hosted several shows including: #MeToo, Now What? Original series on PBS (2018); The Zainab Salbi Project, original series on Huffington Post (2016); The Nidaa Show with TLC Arabic where she started with the historic first interview of Oprah Winfrey in the Arab world; and her latest Through Her Eyes with Zainab Salbi at Yahoo News. She frequently appears on MSNBC as a commentator on current news.
Zainab is the author of several books including the national bestseller Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of SaddamIf You Knew Me You Would Care, and her latest, Freedom is an Inside Job.
Zainab has been consistently identified as one of the women impacting the world. People Magazine named her as one of the “25 Women Changing The World” in 2016, Foreign Policy Magazine named her as one of the “100 Leading Global Thinkers, Fast Company identified her as one of “100 Most Creative People in Business”, The Guardian and Newsweek has listed her on their “Top 100 Women of Activists and Campaigners” and Harper’s Bazaar called her as one of the 21st century heroes. In 2017, Arabian Business named Salbi as the “#1 Most Influential Arab Woman in the World” and has since been joined by Gulf Business to consistently name her as one of the World’s Most Influential Arabs. She was also identified as one of the “100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2019” by Watkins. Most recently, she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for her humanitarian work with Women War Survivors and for her Global Journalism.
Zainab was recently selected as a jury of The Hilton Humanitarian Prize – the biggest award for humanitarian work throughout the world. She also sits on the Board of Directors of Synergos and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).

Zainab Salbi is a celebrated humanitarian, author, and journalist. Oprah Winfrey identified her as one of the 25 women changing the world to People Magazine and Foreign Policy Magazine called Zainab one of “100 Top Global Thinkers”.

Zainab is the co-founder for DaughtersforEarth.com, Chief Awareness Officer at FindCenter.com, and host of Redefined podcast. Zainab is also the author of a few books, including the national bestseller Between Two Worlds and her latest Freedom Is an Inside Job. She is also the creator and host of several shows, including #MeToo, Now What? on PBS, and Through Her Eyes with Zainab Salbi at Yahoo News.

Zainab started her career when she was 23 years old as the founder and former CEO of Women for Women International, an organization to help women survivors of conflicts. She built the group from helping 30 women to reaching nearly half a million women and raising 146 million dollars in aids and microloans to help them and their families rebuild their lives.

Fun facts about Zainab

Ambition: I’m dedicated to service. There is no question for me about that. I just want to be happy as I am in service.

Best Meal: Breakfast

Favorite Food: My basic every day meal includes eggs, avocado, spinach.  That’s my staple.  Then once a day I indulge on a bite of chocolate – one bite only.  But then each country I have my favorite meal:  Jordan: Lentil soup. Iraq: Lima beans with dill and rice.  Turkey:  Green beans with olive oil.  Lebanon:  Chicken liver with pomegranate sauce. America:  Burger.  Morocco:  Chicken Tagine.  Egypt: Moloukhia.

Favorite place: Mountains wherever they are.  And my home wherever I am.

Love: Home

Fear: Lack of safety

Dream: To live my truth with no care and judgement.