Women of The Middle East Podcast: Season 6 Amal Al-Malki

Season 6 presents women stories, standing on themes around which their stories intersect, collide or/and merge. 
Lana Medawar is a seasoned journalist and media innovator, born on March 8, 1986, in Jezzine, a city known for its stunning landscapes. Her career began at a radio station before she graduated from the Lebanese University with a degree in radio and TV journalism in 2006. Lana's professional journey includes significant roles such as a news anchor and program presenter at Almayadeen news channel, where she also creatively led and produced the diverse show "Almashadiyya."
In 2021, Lana shifted her focus towards human journalism, creating the inspiring series "Nothing is Impossible," which highlights stories of perseverance and success. Embracing a new direction in 2023, she turned to producing content rooted in books and knowledge, leading to the establishment of the Storytelling School and the Solist Mindfulness Hub. Lana's career reflects her commitment to impactful storytelling and personal growth, inviting her audience to join her in a journey of discovery and inspiration.

Born in Kuwait on the 10th of October 1967 to a Kuwaiti father and a Syrian mother, Dr. Shurooq Amin is an Anglophone poet, an artist, a certified interior decorator, and a professor at Kuwait University. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and an MA in English Literature. She has appeared on several television interviews on Kuwait TV, as well as in various Middle Eastern and Kuwaiti magazines and newspapers. She has given lectures about poetry and writing to school-children in private British schools in Kuwait and regularly holds poetry readings. Her poems, short stories, and paintings have appeared in more than 30 literary and artistic journals. Shurooq’s cultural diversity stems not only from her Middle Eastern upbringing and British education, but from her extensive travel experiences in Asia and the Middle East, North Africa, North and South America, and Europe. She lives in Kuwait with her husband and four children in a feng-shuied, Mexican/Moroccan-inspired home. She is the first Kuwaiti to be nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her poetry in 2007.

Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American women's rights activist, writer, television show host, and podcaster. She is the co-founder of Daughters for Earth, a fund and a movement of Daughters rising up worldwide with climate solutions to protect and restore Mother Earth. She is also the co-founder of Women for Women International, a non-profit organization that helps women affected by sexual violence and conflict. She hosted Through Her Eyes and #MeToo, Now What? television shows, about issues affecting women. From 2022 she hosted the Redefined podcast.
In her 2005 memoir Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, Salbi recounted her early life: Born in Baghdad to a father who later became Saddam Hussein's personal pilot, her family arranged her marriage and emigration to the United States, in order to remove her from the proximity of Hussein, who had started showing unwanted attention to her. After an abusive marriage in the U.S., she divorced her husband and started her humanitarian career. She is also the author of the nonfiction book The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival & Hope which documents the stories of women survivors of war.
In September of 2023, Zainab Salbi was honoured with the Time100 Impact Award.

Dr. Lina AbiRafeh is an Arab-American feminist activist and author who works gender issues in development and humanitarian contexts. She has worked for various United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organizations and was the executive director of the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University.
She has a Master's degree in International Economics and Development from Johns Hopkins University.
She completed her PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008, her thesis focusing on gender-based violence in humanitarian aid in conflict and post-conflict zones.
Dr. Lina Abi Rafeh shares how her earliest experiences and feelings of injustice against women gave her the drive and motivation to actively work towards social justice and equality