“There’s so much I want to say that I just can’t.”

Esra’a Al Shafei on the struggle of self-censorship

(cross posted from MIT.edu)

Esra’a Al Shafei is the Founder and Director of Majal, a nonprofit that helps build communities and digital platforms that celebrate, protect, and promote diversity and social justice. Majal focuses primarily on issues that receive little or no attention: From rights of the invisible lower income migrant workers, to the stigmatized Middle East LGBTQ community, to those seeking to express dissent through music. Esra’a has also served as a Senior TED Fellow, an MIT Director’s Fellow, and a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow. She is the recipient of a Berkman Award from Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society and has been featured in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list of social entrepreneurs making an impact in the world.

This is the edited transcript of an interview conducted as part of the Humans of the Internet space at the 2017 Mozilla Festival. Browse other interviews via the Humans of the Internet playlist.

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