Maria Al Masani

Early life and career

Maria Al-Masani was born in Russia and moved to Yemen at age three. At 16, she moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, attending a local college before relocating to Ottawa to study economic development at Carleton University.

Al-Masani came to national and international attention as the first contestant of Yemeni origin to enter the Miss Universe pageant at the national level for Miss Universe Canada, and the first Yemeni contestant to win a title, of Miss Congeniality at the competition in 2010. She also worked for two political parties in the Parliament of Canada, one as an intern in 2006, the other as a staffer in 2013.

Activism

Al-Masani founded Yemen Rights Monitor during the Arab Spring in 2011, providing a means of updating news via social media when traditional news media had been blocked – she was later cited by Andy Carvin as one of his most reliable sources about opposition activities in Yemen.

She has appeared as an activist against forced marriage on Al Jazeera's The Stream, recounting her own escape from a potential forced marriage in Yemen. In 2012, Al-Masani was among the speakers at a summit hosted by Yahoo! in Cairo on women's use of technology to create positive change. In 2011, she spoke at the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, discussing how social media has been used to circumvent censorship in Yemen.

Women's rights

Al-Masani serves on the board of Madbakh Women's International, a group whose projects have included raising funds for the National Boroma Fistula Hospital in Somalia. She also discussed fistula on Al Jazeera's The Stream and in a feature in the Canadian political and government newspaper The Hill Times. She fights for freedom with responsibility, dignity, respect and fairness. Her idea of women's rights activism, which parts from second-wave feminism since 1964, by accepting personal responsibility for themselves, accepting reality and empowering themselves to achieve their dreams rather than the marxist feminist intersectional idea of the eternal victim that generates learned helplessness. She believes fairness, taking personal responsibility, internal locus of control, and respect are necessary to achieve freedom. She stated, "You can't change the world overnight, but you can change how you react to it. By accepting the world for what it is, and changing how you react to it while making the best use of resources available to you, gradually, you can change the world, empower yourself, your family and your community."

Happy Yemens and Haute Couture

Since Sept 24, 2014, during Yemeni civil war, Al-Masani started a collective Happy Yemens www.happyyemens.org to raise awareness for her besieged town of Taiz, besieged by Houthis. The expose of corruption had caused an outrage amongst many pro Houthi radical Islamist twitter platform users, especially her post on UN corruption in collaboration with Houthi militias in Yemen. As her uncle Dr. Abdulaziz Alsaqqaf, founder of Yemen Times, was assassinated for his endeavors for a free press in Yemen, Al-Masani supports journalist ethics and truth in media, asking journalists to fact check, and is a supporter for truth in media for GamerGate. Since 2015, she has been studying classic haute couture at the Richard Robinson Academy, a school found by Richard Robinson who worked under Christian Dior himself. Her blog Ottawa Royal Style, popular among elegant discerning women www.ottawaroyalstyle.com focuses on a classic chic elegance, with an emphasis on aesthetics that will bring joy to the wearer, and help the client achieve her personal and professional goals. Her influences are vintage Dior, Jacques Fath and vintage Givency, Richard Robinson, Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad.

She currently is a fashion designer, starting her own brand, Al-Masani Royal Jewelry, based on ideals of promoting elegance and beauty. www.almasaniroyalhouse.com