ArabicintheSky - Saudi Aramco World

Sisterhood of Hope
Interview by Nathalie Handal
Photographed by Alexandra Avakian
Contact Press Images
In eight of the world’s most war-ravaged countries,
Women for Women International has become a successful
nonprofit organization by helping more than a
quarter-million affected women and their family
members rebuild their lives.
Founded in 1993 by Zainab Salbi and Amjad Atallah,
Women for Women provides the education, means
of self-expression and access to resources that help survivors
of war regain their footing in their families and
their communities. For her groundbreaking leadership,
Time magazine named Salbi an “Innovator of the
Month” in 2005, and in 2006 Women for Women
became the first women’s organization to receive the
world’s largest humanitarian prize, the Conrad N.
Hilton award. Salbi herself has appeared on the “Oprah
Winfrey Show” eight times; she blogs for Marie Claire
magazine and The Huffington Post.
Salbi was born in Iraq to a family then connected to
the dictator Saddam Hussein: Her father was Hussein’s
pilot. In 1990, as her family’s relations with the regime
deteriorated, her mother arranged for Zainab to escape
Iraq through a three-month marriage of convenience
in the US. In her 2005 memoir, Between Two Worlds,
Zainab Salbi recounts her life growing up and the
adult journeys that led her to found Women for
Women. In 2006, she published The Other Side of War:
Women’s Stories of Survival and Hope. She holds degrees
from George Mason University and the London School
of Economics.
For our interview, poet and playwright Nathalie
Handal spoke with Zainab at a recording studio in New
York City. To listen, or to download their conversation,
visit www.saudiaramcoworld.com.
—The Editors
Nathalie Handal :
In your memoir, Between Two Worlds, you write,
“I created a whole new identity for myself as the founding
president of a non-profit women’s organization
called Women for Women International, which supports
women survivors of war.” Has your identity
changed since then?
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