Zainab Salbi

Early years

Salbi was born in 1969 in Baghdad, Iraq. Her father worked as personal pilot of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Experiencing immediate psychological abuse to her family from Hussein, Salbi chose to dedicate her adult life to the women around the world.

She moved to the United States at the age of 19. Salbi's experience with the Iran–Iraq War sensitized her to the plight of women in war worldwide. She has written and spoken extensively on the use of rape and other forms of violence against women during war. Her work has been featured in major media outlets including seven times on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Washington Post. In 1995, President Bill Clinton honored Salbi at the White House for her humanitarian work in Bosnia.

Salbi graduated from George Mason University with a Bachelor of Individualized Study degree in Sociology and Women's Studies and from London School of Economics with master's degree in development studies.

Humanitarian work

In the early 1990s, newlyweds Zainab Salbi and Amjad Atallah, a Palestinian-American, were deeply moved by the plight of the women of former Yugoslavia, many of whom were forced into the now infamous rape and concentration camps. They wanted to volunteer to help, but were unable to locate an organization that addressed these injustices and egregious wrongs.

In lieu of a honeymoon, Salbi and Atallah, launched an organization that created "sister-to-sister" connections between sponsors in the United States and women survivors of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were greeted with an overwhelming response; a woman survivor of the rape camps who had lost her husband and children during the war said, "I thought the world had forgotten us…."

They returned to the United States with a mission. With the continued support of other concerned individuals, they started Women for Women International with a shoestring budget and a small team of dedicated volunteers. Since 1993, Women for Women International has supported women survivors of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosovo, Nigeria, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. Under Salbi's tenure as the CEO of Women for Women International, the organization reached more than 400,000 women in eight conflict areas, distributed more than $100 million in direct aid and microcredit loans, trained thousands of women in rights awareness, and helped thousands more to start their own small businesses.

In October 2011, Salbi gave a lecture entitled "Building Bridges, Rebuilding Societies" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.

Media work

Zainab Salbi launched the Zainab Salbi Project, an original series on Huffington Post and AOL in 2016. Series can be viewed http://aol.it/2ibIqrs. In 2015, she launched the Nida'a Show on TLC Arabia http://nidaashow.com. She has been Editor At Large at Women In The World of The New York Times since 2015 http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/.

Awards

Author

In 2005, Zainab Salbi published her memoir Between Two Worlds.It describes her life growing up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime. Publishers Weekly calls Between Two Worlds "the most honest account of life within Saddam's circle so far. It's an enlightening revelation of how, by barely perceptible stages, decent people make accommodations in a horrific regime." Only 11 years old when her father was chosen to serve as Saddam Hussein's personal pilot, Zainab and her family were often forced to spend weekends with Saddam where he watched their every move. Her mother eventually sent Zainab to America for an arranged marriage, but the marriage that was intended to save her turned out to be another world of tyranny and abuse. Zainab started over. She forged a new identity as a champion of women survivors of war and founded Women for Women International.

In 2006, Zainab Salbi wrote The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope. Published by National Geographic, Zainab Salbi takes readers into the heart of Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Sudan to hear the stories of women who daily reclaim the lives of their families and communities from the ashes of conflict.

"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 a 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 women's side of history."

If You Knew Me You Would Care was published in 2013. It is a collaboration between Zainab Salbi and photographer Rennio Maifredi. Together they traveled to Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to seek out women who have been subject to the worst trials individuals must ever face, and yet overcame this adversity. Salbi conducted interviews with women about their definitions of war and peace, about their horrific and tragic pasts and their hopes for the future, and Maifredi photographed each of the women interviewed. The interviews and images together create a compelling, global, first-person account of what it means to be a powerful female survivor. "If You Knew Me You Would Care" is a celebration of women's stories and strength worldwide—it represents a journey taken to find women who have survived wars, violence, and poverty in order to collect their stories. The stories go beyond tears and victimhood and reveal joy, love, and forgiveness.

"The women in this book are an inspiration to all of us who aspire to triumph over adversity. It is a personal peek at the most intimate stories as told by women who have survived war. It is a tribute to them, to their survival, their achievements, and their dreams. I hope people everywhere will take away the powerful message of survival this book inspires." —Zainab Salbi