Manal al Sharif

Writer, Blogger and Women's Rights Activist

Saudi Arabia

Ms. al-Sharif was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, and by Arabian Business as the most inspiring Arab woman. She had quit her professional career in 2012 to work full-time as a social activist creating awareness for women’s rights in her home country, Saudi Arabia, and as a weekly columnist in the prominent Arab newspaper, Al-Hayat. She founded the #Women2Drive movement in 2011, which led to her arrest with charges of civil disobedience. Currently, she is writing her memoir titled Daring to Drive that will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2017. She was the first Saudi female IT security consultant working for the oil company Saudi Aramco for 10 years. She received the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.