Esra'a Al Shafei

Esra'a Al Shafei, born on July twenty-third, nineteen eighty-six, is a prominent Bahraini journalist, activist, blogger, and businessperson. As the founder and executive director of Majal (Mideast Youth) and its associated projects, including CrowdVoice.org, she has made significant contributions to civil rights and free speech advocacy. Al Shafei has been recognized as a senior TED Fellow and an Echoing Green fellow, earning accolades for her outspoken defense of free expression.

Her innovative work has garnered her a place in Fast Company magazine's list of the 'One Hundred Most Creative People in Business.' In two thousand eleven, The Daily Beast honored her as one of the 'Seventeen Bravest Bloggers Worldwide.' Al Shafei is also a passionate promoter of music as a vehicle for social change, having founded Mideast Tunes, the largest platform for underground musicians in the Middle East and North Africa.

In two thousand eight, she received the Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the internet's societal impact. Her accolades continued with a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship in two thousand twelve for her work on CrowdVoice.org, and she was awarded the Monaco Media Prize for innovative media use for humanity's betterment.

Al Shafei's influence was further acknowledged in two thousand fourteen when she was featured in Forbes magazine's 'Thirty Under Thirty' list of social entrepreneurs. The World Economic Forum recognized her as one of 'Fifteen Women Changing the World in two thousand fifteen,' and she won the 'Most Courageous Media' Prize from Free Press Unlimited that same year. In two thousand seventeen, she was selected as a Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and was later named one of BBC's 'One Hundred Women' in two thousand eighteen.

Her commitment to knowledge sharing led her to be a keynote speaker at Wikimania two thousand seventeen, and she was appointed to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees later that year. In January twenty twenty-three, she joined the board of The Tor Project. In April twenty twenty-four, Al Shafei announced her involvement with SimpleX Chat, a UK-based privacy-oriented messaging provider, before launching Surveillance Watch later that year. In twenty twenty-five, she was awarded a Senior Mozilla Foundation Fellowship to further develop her platform.