Women of Middle East network for peacebuilding

Eman Alhussein is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

She was previously a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a research fellow at King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. Alhussein’s research focuses on Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region. Her areas of interest include identity and nationalism, gender, cultural and societal change, and religious discourse and reforms.

Taif Alkhudary is a PhD student at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, and a Research Officer at the London School of Economics (LSE) Middle East Centre.

Previously, she worked for several NGOs conducting strategic litigation on cases of human rights violations.

Marsin Alshamary is a research fellow at the Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs with the Harvard Kennedy School, where she is working on her book project: “A Century of the Iraqi Hawza: How Clerics Shaped Protests and Politics in Modern Day Iraq”.

Prior to this, she was a postdoctoral research fellow with the Center for Middle East Politics at the Brookings Institution. Her research examines the intersection of religion and politics in the Middle East, looking particularly at how the Shi’a religious establishment in Iraq has intervened in formal politics, protest, and peacebuilding. She is also interested in the evolution of civil society in post-2003 Iraq and has written various reports on the topic. She has contributed opinion pieces to various outlets including 1001 Iraqi Thoughts, The Washington Post, War on the Rocks and PRI’s The World.

Alshamary holds a PhD in political science from MIT and a BA in International Relations and French from Wellesley College.

Fatma Al Arimi is managing partner at the Media Centre (Oman).

She is an Omani journalist with more than 13 years of experience working for local and international media houses. In 2018 Al Arimi established WAF News under TMC. In 2021 WAF became the first private news agency to be licensed in Oman. Before establishing the Media Centre as an Oman-based information and news hub – with a focus on local news, reports, and analysis of current economic and social matters, and WAF (wafoman.com) as a news agency – she was the Reuters correspondent in Oman. Al Arimi is one of the most followed journalists on social media in Oman, and is considered a reliable source of news and information. In 2017 she was recognised as one of Oman’s top influencers by the country’s National Youth Program.

Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi is senior research fellow with the international security studies department at the Royal United Services Institute.

She has nearly a decade of experience in international relations and security in the Middle East, having worked in academic institutions and think-tanks including King’s College London, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and the Oxford Research Group, as well as various international consultancy firms. She is a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ Middle East Centre and a non-resident associate fellow at the NATO Defence College. She frequently writes for outlets such as Foreign Policy, BBC News, the Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, and appears as a commentator on the BBC, Al Jazeera, Sky News, CNBC, NPR, and Bloomberg.

Nadereh Chamlou is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, where she focuses on the private sector and entrepreneurship development, particularly on issues related to promoting growth and competitiveness through better utilisation of the talent pool and benefiting from diversity and inclusion. Previously, she was a senior advisor at the World Bank and an adjunct professor at New York University’s Wagner School for Public Policy. She holds a BSc in Foreign Service and a MA in Economics from Georgetown University, and received The Global Alliance for Women’s “Making a Difference” award in 2015.

Fatiha Dazi-Héni has been a researcher on the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf, and Middle East affairs at IRSEM since 2014.

She also teaches history and socio-political developments in the Arabian Peninsula at Sciences Po, Lille and has held research positions at Sciences Po’s Centre for International Studies, the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain and the Directorate of Strategic Affairs, a French think-tank. Dazi-Héni holds a PhD from the Institute for Political Studies in Paris on political participation and social mobilisation in Kuwait.

Dr Dina Esfandiary is senior advisor on the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group.

Previously, she was a fellow in the Middle East department of The Century Foundation and an International Security Program research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Esfandiary has also worked in the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament programme of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Elham Fakhro is an associate fellow with the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa Programme and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University. She previously acted as senior analyst for the Gulf States with the International Crisis Group and as a lecturer in international law at NYU Abu Dhabi. She holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (DPhil) from St Antony’s College, Oxford University and a Master of Laws (LLM) from Harvard Law School.

Roxane Farmanfarmaian is director of international relations and global studies at the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge, senior research fellow at King’s College London, affiliated lecturer on the modern Middle East at the department of politics and international studies at the University of Cambridge, and senior associate fellow at the European Leadership Network.

Farmanfarmaian is a frequent speaker and media commentator on Middle East current affairs, particularly in relation to Iran and the Gulf. As a regional expert and consultant, she has worked with a variety of governmental and commercial organisations, including the UK House of Lords and the US Department of Defense. Previously a journalist, she has published books including Blood and Oil: A Prince’s Memoir of Iran, from the Shah to the Ayatollah and Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean: Communicating Power in Transition After 2011. She holds a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a BA from Princeton University. She lives in London.

Yasmine Farouk is a non-resident scholar with the Middle East programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

She studied political science at Cairo University, Sciences Po Paris and was a Fulbright fellow at Yale University. Prior to joining Carnegie, Farouk was based in Egypt, where she taught political science. She previously worked at the office of the Egyptian prime minister after the 2011 revolution, supporting civil society participation in the national dialogue and constitutional processes. From 2016 to 2017, she was the director of research at the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding, a think-tank and training centre affiliated with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has also worked as a fellow at the French Ministry of Defence, Stanford University, the American University in Cairo (AUC Forum), and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs – as well as a consultant at the United Nations Development Programme working on the Arab Human Development Report.

Ellie Geranmayeh is a senior policy fellow and deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. She focuses on European policy in relation to Iran, particularly on the nuclear and regional dossiers and sanctions policy.

Geranmayeh worked extensively on the diplomatic track that led to the 2015 nuclear deal and continues to brief senior policymakers on how to effectively contain Iran’s nuclear activities. Her research also covers wider regional dynamics including de-escalation efforts between the GCC states and Iran, and geopolitical trends in the Middle East as a consequence of increasing tensions between global powers.

She is regularly quoted by international media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and appears on CNN, Al-Jazeera and the BBC to provide commentary on developments in the Middle East.

Hafsa Halawa is an independent consultant and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. She was a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Halawa is an independent consultant working on development goals and political, social, and economic affairs across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the Horn of Africa. A former corporate lawyer, she has held positions in government, the United Nations, INGOs, NGOs, corporate multinationals, private firms, and think-tanks. Halawa now works independently for a similarly broad set of clients.

Lahib Higel is a senior analyst for Iraq at the International Crisis Group, focusing on politics, governance, security, and conflict in the country.

She has extensive experience working in Iraq and the Kurdistan region with various organisations and institutions, such as the Dialogue Advisory Group and the International NGO Safety Organisations. She holds an MSc in international relations from the London School of Economics (LSE) and an MA in international security from Sciences Po, Paris.

Lana Khalid is the project specialist to the Iraq Program at the United States Institute of Peace. She works on projects that promote minority inclusivity with an emphasis on gender balance, especially in traditionally conservative areas.

In the past three years, Lana has worked on projects that promoted minority participation in decision-making through Participatory Budgeting Process mechanisms in minority-rich areas in Nineveh, with a gender-balance approach in community representation. Additionally, she has worked on increasing minority representation in the Iraqi federal education curriculum and Kurdistan region of Iraq. Both projects aimed to increase social cohesion in Iraqi communities. Khalid is currently conducting independent research on how postpartum mental ill health can be a driver of conflict.

Muna Luqman is founder and chairperson of Food4Humanity. She is also co-founder of the Women’s Solidarity Network, and member of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership.

Luqman frequently briefs the UN Security Council, members of the US Congress, and the UN Human Rights Council. She has worked across the world to advocate for an end to the war in Yemen and to call for women’s participation in the peace process. Climate change and water diplomacy have been a highlight of her advocacy work, particularly on local mediation over natural resources. Luqman is currently working on security sector reform, governance, and climate with Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, and with the Center of Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva.

Haifa Ahmad Al Maashi is an independent researcher based in London. From 2021-2022, she worked as a consultant for the Yemeni Southern Transitional Council for Foreign Affairs. Prior to that, she was the director of the geo-strategic studies division at Dubai Public Policy Research Centre. Al Maashi obtained a PhD in journalism from the University of Cairo and an MA in journalism from the University of Colorado – Boulder in the United States. Her main research interest is the implications of political crises in the Middle East and North Africa region. She is an expert in political media and has published work in the field of media and political development, the role of media in social change, communication theories, and the new media. She is also written for several newspapers and websites.

Azadeh Moaveni is associate professor and director of the Global Journalism programme at New York University, and advisor to the International Crisis Group.

Moaveni is a writer, researcher, and academic who has covered the Middle East for two decades. She started reporting in Cairo in 1999 while on a Fulbright fellowship, and has also covered Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, she is the author of Lipstick Jihad and Honeymoon in Tehran, and co-author, with Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, of Iran Awakening. Her latest book, Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Folio Rathbone Prize. She writes for the London Review of Books, the Guardian, and the New York Times, among other publications. She lectures in journalism at New York University’s London campus.

Gabool al-Mutawakel is a Yemeni civil society activist and a co-founder of Youth Leadership Development Foundation (YLDF), a Sanaa-based NGO that seeks to strengthen and support the leadership capabilities of Yemeni youth. She is currently a senior consultant in project design, monitoring and evaluation. Previously, she served as YLDF’s general manager, overseeing the management and resource development efforts of the organisation and directing two of its centers: the Girls’ World Communication Center and the Youth Economic Development Center. A seasoned trainer in youth leadership and project management, al-Mutawakel has managed training projects for nearly 500 human rights activists. She holds an MA in international development policy from Duke University and an MSc in NGOs and development from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Sheikha Najla Al Qassimi is director of the Global Affairs Division at the Dubai Public Policy Research Centre (B’huth). Her career began at the United Arab Emirates Ministry for Foreign Affairs, where she served as a human rights expert in the UAE mission to the UN in Geneva. She has served as ambassador to various European countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Portugal. Prior to B’huth, she worked at Zayed University from August 2016 to June 2018 and at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies.

Al Qassimi holds a BA in political science from the United Arab Emirates University and a MA in E-Government from Stockholm University.

Ambassador Rend Al-Rahim is co-founder and president of the Iraq Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to the support and promotion of democracy, human rights, and civil society in Iraq.

Al-Rahim is widely recognised as a leading expert on Iraq. She travels to Iraq regularly to provide training to members of the Iraqi Parliament and civic leaders, and to strengthen cooperation with multiple stakeholders. She has collaborated with academic and research institutions, including Princeton University, the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as forums on the Iraqi Constitution. From 2003 to 2005, she served as Iraq’s chief of mission to the United States. She is the co-author, with Graham Fuller, of The Arab Shi’a: The Forgotten Muslims, in addition to op-eds and other articles in numerous publications. She has testified before the US Congress as an expert on Iraq.

Since 2012, Safa Rawiah has been the general manager of leading Yemeni non-governmental organisation, the Youth Leadership Development Foundation. She is a well-known development professional and a recipient of numerous international awards for her contribution to the development of Yemeni women and youth. Rawiah has considerable experience in development, humanitarian, and peace-building initiatives in fragile and complex settings, with specific expertise in the empowerment of youth and women, civil society strengthening, peace-building, and conflict resolution. Additionally, she is a chairwoman for the Civil Alliance for Peace, and a co-founder of both the Leaders School and WARD for Women’s Empowerment in Sana’a. She holds an MA in international development and gender from the Gender and Development Studies and Research Center at Sana’a University.

Mahsa Rouhi is a research fellow at the Center for Strategic Research at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University, and associate fellow for non-proliferation and nuclear policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Rouhi’s research and expertise focus on nuclear policy and security strategy in the Middle East, particularly Iran. She is currently working on a project on grand strategy, security, and nuclear decision-making in Iran. Prior to joining the Institute for National Strategic Studies, Rouhi was a research fellow with the non-proliferation and nuclear policy programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies – where she co-directed a track II project on the geopolitics and nuclear issues in the Middle East, and with which she continues to engage as an associate fellow. She was a post-doctoral fellow with the Managing the Atom project at the Belfer Center from 2016 to 2018. She was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Miami from 2014 to 2016. She received her PhD from King’s College, University of Cambridge. She received her BA in economics from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, and her master’s degree in political theory from the University of Sheffield. Rouhi’s analysis and commentary have been published by Foreign Policy, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Boston Globe, The National Interest, and other academic and policy journals. She has consulted government and non-government organisations on nuclear issues and Iran’s security policy.

Randa Slim is senior fellow and director of the conflict resolution and track II dialogues program at the Middle East Institute, and non-resident fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute.

Slim is a former vice president of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue. Slim was a senior programme adviser at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a guest scholar at the United States Institute of Peace, a programme director at Resolve, and a programme officer at the Kettering Foundation. A long-term practitioner of track II dialogues and peacebuilding processes in the Middle East and Central Asia, she is the author of several studies, book chapters, and articles on conflict management, post-conflict peacebuilding, and Middle East politics.

Dania Thafer is executive director of the Gulf International Forum and professorial lecturer at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.

Thafer’s work has been widely published on matters concerning the Arab Gulf states and has co-authored two edited books: The Arms Trade, Military Services and the Security Market in the Gulf States: Trends and Implications and The Dilemma of Security and Defense in the Gulf Region. Previously, she worked at the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. Thafer holds a master’s degree in political economy from New York University, and a PhD in the political economy and international relations of Gulf Cooperation Council states from the American University in Washington.

Sanam Vakil is the director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme, where she leads project work on Iran and Gulf Arab dynamics.

She is also the James Anderson adjunct professor with the Middle East Studies department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna. Sanam is the author of Action and Reaction: Women and Politics in Iran (Bloomsbury 2013). She publishes analysis and comments for a variety of media and academic outlets.

Maha Yahya is director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.

Prior to joining Carnegie, Yahya spearheaded strategic and inter-sectoral initiatives in the Office of the Executive Secretary at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, leading work on social justice and participatory development. She has consulted with international organisations including UN bodies and the World Bank, as well the private sector, on a broad range of issues in countries including Lebanon, Pakistan, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. She serves on several advisory boards, including the UNESCO commission Futures of Education. She was also the founder and editor of the MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies. Yahya holds PhDs in the social sciences and humanities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Architectural Association School of Architecture. She is the author of numerous publications.

Nussaibah Younis is an independent consultant on Iran, and founder of Iraq Leadership Fellows Program.

She is an expert on Iraqi politics and an experienced team leader in the development sector with thematic expertise in governance, political mediation, stabilisation, youth inclusion and combating violent extremism. Younis serves as senior advisor to the European Institute of Peace, and as senior consultant to the DT Institute. She is the founder of the Iraq Leadership Fellows Program, which brings together young Iraqi civil society activists and aspiring political leaders for intensive leadership development training. Previously, Younis has been the director of the Task Force on the Future of Iraq at the Atlantic Council, which developed a strategy for US engagement with Iraq beyond the war on ISIS.

Yasmeen al-Eryani is co-executive director for knowledge production at Sana’a Center and its former director of research (2021-2023). She is currently a PhD candidate in social anthropology at Tampere University, Finland. Al-Eryani holds an MA in political science from the University of Helsinki and a BA in government studies from Georgetown University.