10 Libyan Women You Need To Know
When we started Project Silphium one of the first things we asked our audience was “ Name 10 Libyan women you know”. The answer was always the same- The same 3 women that were always in the media here in Libya. Some people managed to reach five , but we rarely had anyone go beyond 10.
“ you can not be what you can not see “
It was the main reasons our #WomeninLibya snapchat account was created. We wanted to see #LibyanWomen and witness how they live their lives. By seeing someone else’s story you are motivated by them to reach your goals.
We acknowledge we can’t list all the great women in Libya today, that’s why we are asking you to help us by submitting names on our pages .
Here is our first list of the “10 Libyan Women You Need To Know”…
Civil society activist and writer. You can read her latest writings at medium
She was recently with a team of young people from Libya who won second place in the delegation competition organised by the Volunteering youth forum in Doha!
Nahla Bushnaf
#Benghazi Blogger, photographer, english teacher, pharmacist to be. She recently took over the #WomenInLibya account and shared some amazing snaps with us. You can read her blog here
She also had a successful cake business called Belladonna cakes
Here are some of her beautiful photos
Jusoor cofounder and Libyan lawyer. Always creating new material, She recently launched women in workforce discussion groups in tripoli. You can read more about it here Jusoor’s Discussion: Libyan women are demanding real change in the field of work
Fairouz Belkheir
Libyan Fashion designer who lives in #Benghazi. Her design won at the Fashion Crowd Challenge Awards.
“I raided my grandma and great-aunt’s closet to make these designs. It really felt like opening a treasure chest! I love the traditional colours, the fabric, the prints, the small jewels… and I like to mix modern pieces with those things from my heritage. My dream is to make a design that blends the modern and traditional in such a way that I could wear it every day.”
You can read the rest of her story at “ From my Libyan Heritage “
Here are some of her designs from the Fashion Crowd Challenge Awards
#Benghazi Blogger and civil society activist who just graduated (mabrook). She recently did a Blogging and Wordpress workshop with her organization #YoungWritersOfBenghazi. Her blog Brave New Libya details what life is like in Libya after the revolution.
Asma is co-founder of Tamazight Women’s Movement and a women’s rights activist. She recently received the Luxembourg peace prize ( read about it here )
“ The Luxembourg Peace Prize is a recognition to Asma’s contributions in the world as a key player to support peace-building, promoting peace and conflict resolution “
An active social entrepreneur in the Tripoli scene. She’s known for having new and interesting ideas that have included “TWCIF “ Tripoli where one can find a group for finding things in Tripoli. She recently launched her online translating venture called Noon for translations.
She’s a university lecturer on human rights and has a LLM degree on human rights, international law and international relations. What makes Khadija amazing is the amount of effort she puts in to educate and mentor her students. She recently organised a week of workshops that ranged from women’s development to learning skills. If you want to join in with any of her workshops follow their human rights page
A Libyan student studying in the uk. Her project “Iro” was one of the winners for the Royal Society Of Arts Students Design Awards #RSADesign.
Iro allows us to reuse paint, ink and colour waste from the print and textile industry in an interesting way and turn it into a valuable material to create different products instead of burning or burying that waste and polluting rivers and water, furthermore iro reduces our use of wood and plastic in the creation process of different products.
“Over 900 students from 5 continents went onto submit their work into the competition.
The competition show students using design in the context of social and economic innovation, sustainability and international development.”
View the winning entries: sda.thersa.org
Our very own passionate Project Silphium co-founder is also on the list. You can usually find her reading a book. She always updates and is very proud of her Goodreads reviews. She recently facilitated a LaTeX workshop in #Benghazi and wrote about it here “ Stories are told by survivors “
“Teaching women how to make use of these tools to take control over their lives and futures and to remind everyone that we’re here and we have something to say too”
This was just a sample of the interesting, inspiring Libyan women we know . Stay tuned for more soon .
Don’t see your name up there ? send us an email
