Little Zainab was born in Iraq, and from the moment she was born her sight was affected by the experience of war. Zainab’s family was one of the most protected in the country. Her father was one of the best pilots in the country, employed by the Boeing company, while her mother was a teacher. However, despite the comfort in which his family was living, with Saddam Hussein’s rise to power, they began to suffer heavy psychological abuse from him. While the majority of the Iraqi population suffered both physical and psychological abuse, his family was ‘spared’ only physical abuse. To consolidate his power, the dictator had to surround himself with the Baghdad elite. The deal was that her father became Hussein’s personal pilot in exchange for the non-deportation of his wife – of distant Iranian origin.
Zainab’s family, therefore, decided to ‘save their daughter’ through an arranged marriage to an Iraqi American much older than her, who was only 19 at the time, which took her to live in the United States.
The marriage soon turned violent, although Zainab was only able to escape from her husband’s home after three months. Meanwhile, even though Zainab always wanted to return to Iraq, due to the Gulf War that broke out a few months after she arrived in America in 1990, she was never able to do so.
Zainab’s experience with the war made her aware of the plight of women in war. When she heard about the war in Bosnia, a few years after arriving in the United States, she decided – at only 23 years old – to take action by founding Women for Women International with her second husband Amjad Atallah, thus dedicating her life to the service of women survivors of war. The group began by assisting 33 Croatian and Bosnian women in 1993.
The very mission of the organisation is to offer support to women survivors of war and its aftermath. The ultimate goal is to include the survivors in the reconstruction of the community and society as a whole. In fact, according to Zainab, at the end of a conflict, it is from the women that we must start again, as they are the ones who provide for the sustenance of the family and the community, thus reconstructing the torn social fabric.
Under her leadership, from 1993 to 2004, the humanitarian organisation Women for Women International was able to help more than 478,000 women in eight conflicts around the world, distributing over $120 million in direct aid and micro-credits, impacting more than 1.7 million families. Zainab has always been adamant that access to education and resources leads to lasting change in women’s lives.
Zainab also wrote and spoke extensively on the use of rape and other forms of violence against women during warfare. Her work has been featured in major media outlets. In addition, US President Bill Clinton honoured Zainab at the White House for her humanitarian work in Bosnia. Zainab has also been identified as one of the 100 most influential women in the world in various newspapers such as The Times and The Guardian.
After 20 years of working with women survivors of war – from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Afghanistan – Zainab came to realise that the secret recipe for change in women’s lives is inspiration. In fact, in 2011 she announced her resignation from her role at Women for Women International to explore the ‘world of inspiration’ in the media.
Zainab also sits on the Board of Directors of Synergos and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).
In 2015, Zainab also launched a groundbreaking talk show with TLC Arabia called “The Nidaa Show”, which aired in over 22 countries across the Arab world. The novelty of that show was that it was dedicated to the acknowledgement of Arab and Muslim women, their stories, challenges and achievements and began for the first time with a historic interview with Oprah Winfrey. The talk show reached such high peaks that Zainab has been the recipient of many awards related to it, including being named the first Most Influential Arab Woman by Arabian Business. Zainab also graduated from George Mason University with a Bachelor’s degree in Individualized Studies in Sociology and Gender Studies, and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics with a major in Development Studies.
Zainab is the author of several books, including the bestseller ‘A Woman Between Two Worlds: My Life in the Shadow of Saddam Hussein’.
We at Large Movements share Zainab’s thoughts and feel it is important to share her story with you because we strive every day for the role of women in the migration debate to be valued, especially during conflicts. It is indeed fundamental not to idealise women survivors of conflicts, victimising them, thus depriving them of the possibility to actively participate in the debate. On the contrary, it is necessary to start from women themselves, giving them a voice and a place at the decision-making tables to guarantee their emancipation and make them the authors of the reconstruction of the social fabric they belong to.
“We have to wake up and we have to roar and we have to stand up. That’s not an activist’ job. That’s every woman’s job.” – Zainab Salbi
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