Contributor

Esra'a Al Shafei is a Bahraini human rights activist and founder of Majal.org, a network of digital platforms that amplify under-reported and marginalized voices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This work includes Mideast Tunes, a web and mobile application for independent musicians in the MENA who use music as a tool for social justice advocacy; Ahwaa.org, a discussion tool for Arab LGBTQ+ youth which leverages game mechanics to protect and engage its community; and Migrant-Rights.org, the primary resource on the plight of migrant workers in the Gulf region.

Al Shafei was a 2011 Senior TED Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, and Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow. In 2017, she was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit which hosts Wikipedia. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of Access Now, an international non-profit dedicated to an open and free Internet.

Al Shafei is the recipient of the Berkman Award from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society for "outstanding contributions to the Internet and its impact on society over the last decade"; the Monaco Media Prize, which acknowledges innovative uses of media for the betterment of humanity; and the Most Courageous Media award from Free Press Unlimited. In 2014, she received the Human Rights Tulip Prize, awarded annually to organizations or individuals that support human rights in innovative ways. She is the 2018 recipient of the Global Trailblazer Award from Vital Voices. In 2019, she was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and as a Young Leader by Asia Society.