Zainab Salbi is a humanitarian, a writer and a social entrepreneur who has dedicated her life to women’s rights and freedom.  She is the co-founder of Daughters for Earth, a fund and a movement of Daughters rising up worldwide with climate solutions to protect and restore Mother Earth. She has frequently been named as one of the women changing the world by leading publications ranging from Newsweek to The Guardian. Oprah Winfrey identified her as one of the women changing the world to People Magazine and President Bill Clinton identified her as one of the 21st-century heroes to Harper’s Bazaar. Most recently, Zainab received the Times100 Impact Awards in 2023. 

At the age of 23, Zainab founded Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization dedicated to women survivors of wars. Under her leadership (1993–2011), Women for Women International grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to helping more than 420,000 women and distributing more than 146 million dollars in aid. 

Zainab is the author of several books, including the best seller Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny; Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam (with Laurie Buckland); The Other Side of War; Women’s Stories of Survival and Hope; If You Knew Me You Would Care,(with photographs by Rennio Maifredi); and her latest Freedom is an Inside Job; Owning our Darkness and Our Light to Change Ourselves and the World. 

She is also the Executive Editor and Host of several shows including Through Her Eyes with Yahoo News, #MeToo, Now What? with PBS, The Zainab Salbi Project with Huffington Post, and The Nida’a Show with TLC Arabia. 

She is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum and serves on the Boards of Vital Voices, International Refugee Assistance Program (IRAP), and Synergos International.