Esra'a Al Shafei | |
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![]() Avatar used by Al Shafei | |
Born | 23 July 1986 |
Nationality | Bahraini |
Organization | Majal (Mideast Youth) |
Website | majal |
Esra'a Al Shafei (Arabic: إسراء الشافعي, ’Asrā’ ash-Shāfa’ī, pronounced [ʔasraːʔ aʃːafaʔiː]; born 23 July 1986)[1] is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Majal (Mideast Youth) and its related projects, including CrowdVoice.org.[2] Al Shafei is a senior TED Fellow,[3] an Echoing Green fellow,[4] and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as "An outspoken defender of free speech".[5] She has been featured in Fast Company magazine as one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business."[6] In 2011, The Daily Beast listed Al Shafei as one of the 17 bravest bloggers worldwide.[7] She is also a promoter of music as a means of social change,[5] and founded Mideast Tunes, which is currently the largest platform for underground musicians in the Middle East and North Africa.[8]
Al Shafei is a recipient of the Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2008 for "outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society."[9] In 2012, she received a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship for her work on the open source platform CrowdVoice.org.[10] She is also the recipient of the Monaco Media Prize, which acknowledges innovative uses of media for the betterment of humanity.[11] In 2014, she was featured in Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30" list of social entrepreneurs making an impact in the world.[12] The World Economic Forum listed her as one of "15 Women Changing the World in 2015."[13] That same year, she won the "Most Courageous Media" Prize[14] from Free Press Unlimited. Al Shafei was selected as a 2017 Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab.[15] In 2018 she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[16]
Al Shafei was a keynote speaker at Wikimania 2017. In December of the same year, she was appointed to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.[17] In January 2023, she was appointed to the board of The Tor Project.[18]