Zainah Anwar
Zainah Anwar

Zainah Anwar co-founded two ground-breaking women’s groups to promote the rights of women living in Muslim contexts. She is the Co-Founder and Director of Musawah: A Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. Prior to this, she founded and was Executive Director of Sisters in Islam, an organization committed to gender issues and increasing respect for women. She is also a journalist who has contributed to the New Straits Times and The Star—the country’s two main newspapers—and has written a book about Islam in Malaysia. She addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos and delivered a keynote address at Harvard University titled ‘Islam, Human Rights, and Activism’. Newsweek and The Daily Beast named Anwar one of the 150 women ‘Who Shake the World’.

Source of Influence: Social Issues

Status: Featured in current year