Zainab Salbi (Arabic: زينب سلبي; born 1969) is a humanitarian, media host, author, and founder and former CEO (1993-2011) of Washington-based Women for Women International.
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.
From joblessness to lack of education and professional skills to sexual and gender-based violence, women face a multi-faceted oppression.
No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.
Leadership is not about having the charisma or speaking inspirational words, but about leading with example.
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.
Since war often enters homes through the "kitchen door," we need to understand women's attempts to keep life going in the face of shortage of food, closing of schools and reduced freedoms.
I have come to understand that in order to effectively advance women's rights, we need to galvanize a global women's movement.
War is not a computer-generated missile striking a digital map. War is the color of earth as it explodes in our faces, the sound of child pleading, the smell of smoke and fear. Women survivors of war are not the single image portrayed on the television screen, but the glue that holds families and countries together. Perhaps by understanding women, and the other side of war. . . we will have more humility in our discussions of wars. . . perhaps it is time to listen to womens side of history.
Women are not just victims; they are survivors and leaders on the community-level backlines of peace and stability.
I believe that there is an urgent need to restructure the discussion of war to include the impact it has on women.
I grew up with injustice and could do nothing about it. But once in America, I had freedom of choice.
Working with women survivors of war has taught me that we need to listen to women's perspectives on war in order to understand how to effectively rebuild a country, a community and a family.
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.
Stronger women build stronger nations.
Women are part of peace keeping troops in countries like Liberia.
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.
Only 8 percent of peace talks have included women at any level.
Living in war is a co- existence with death.
Unfortunately, violence against women is not the only injustice women face globally; it is one of the many inequalities that impede the full development of socially excluded women globally.
It is the diversity of views that stems from different experiences and different backgrounds that lead to healthy decision-making and not the unified experiences and unified views.