Professional Speakers Bureau International

Creator ~ Curator ~ Connector

lina abirafeh, PHD

TOPICS - • Development

• Diversity Equity & Inclusion • Empowerment

• Gender Equality • Humanitarianism

• Violence • Women's Interests

lina abirafeh - PROGRAMS

 

  • Women's Safety in a Violent World
  • Bodily Autonomy, Not Negotiable
  • Gender Equality, Women’s Rights, and the Global Backlash
  • On Gender and Diversity
  • Women's Rights... What Are YOU Going To Do?
  • Weather the Storm: Building a Resilient Business With Lessons From Emergency Aid Work
  • Feminist Leadership in an Unequal World

 

building a
better world
for women

solutions to global

women's rights challenges

"Lina is a force and energy to be reckoned with!"

Deya' Leonard Dresner, Executive Director, Leonard Education Organization
"Lina isn't just a world class compelling speaker, she is a reagent. Someone who is integral to the very thinking and action in the field of woman's rights. She will tell it like it is, with a heath dose of wit and pull together the right people, in the right place and time to make phenomenal change happen."
Malayah Harper, Founding Board Member She Decides and Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, EngenderHealth
"Thank you so much for the fabulous talk! It was wonderful to hear you speak live! Our participants were thrilled to learn from your experiences and I believe many will take your messages forward and implement them in their daily lives - I know I will!"

Maria Milenova, Young Professionals in Foreign Policy

"To say that Lina AbiRafeh is a pioneer in the field would be an understatement. She wrote the manual! In her work in over 20 countries spanning over two decades, she truly has a global platform. She is not only committed to changing the daily lives of women across the world, she uses her access and privilege to ensure it is heard by policy makers to create lasting and sustainable change. I am proud to list myself in solidarity as one of Lina AbiRafeh's many women change agents."
Manal Omar, Founder, Across Red Lines
"Lina incorporates light moments to present the topic and speakers, and a bit of humor - this made the audience present alert and attentive, beside the importance of the topic!"

Rozan Naji, United Nations
"Thank you for your voice, for your views, and for fighting every single day!"

The Gender Security Project
"Wow that was just a super inspiring webinar from Lina. She has touched on so many topics at once, intersecting them and addressing so many layers of “response-ability”, and contexts while giving concrete examples... thank you for making it happen."

Sophie Rousseau, Journalist

"Thank you for being a voice of female empowerment - and for helping me continue to find my own voice as I listened to you."

Mimi Jenkinson, Australia
"Dr. Lina AbiRafeh presents informed, deep, insightful and topical analysis on global equality, owing to her excellent and diverse experience coupled with her broad research work at the academic level, setting her apart as a strategic speaker, fully captivating diverse audiences."

Njoki Kinyanjui, United Nations

"Dr. AbiRafeh hits you hard with the harsh reality that faces women's lives. Pointed, eloquent, with heart and wit, she brings home the message - that violence is so pervasive in women's lives and, to change that, all of society must change - its people and institutions."

April Pham, United Nations

lina abirafeh- BIOGRAPHY

Lina AbiRafeh is committed to building a better world for women. 


Lina is a global women’s rights expert and gender equality advocate with decades of experience worldwide. She creates innovative solutions to global women’s rights challenges. 


Lina worked for over 20 years in development and humanitarian contexts in Afghanistan, Haiti, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, and others. Her experience spans global organizations such as the World Bank and various United Nations agencies.


Lina advises several organizations and companies at a senior level. In addition, she is also the Senior Advisor for Global Women’s Rights at the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University, where she served as Executive Director for seven years. Lina is also the founder of Yalla, Feminists! an online space dedicated to amplifying women’s voices worldwide.


Lina was honored to be able to share her passion and experience in ending violence against women on global stages including her TEDx talk, WomenDeliver PowerTalk, keynote address for Swedish International Development Agency annual meeting, amongst others.


Lina completed her doctoral work from the London School of Economics and published “Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention” in 2009, based on her PhD research. Her second book “Freedom on the Frontlines: Afghan Women and the Fallacy of Liberation” was released in February 2022. Her next book is underway. 


Lina speaks and publishes frequently on a range of gender issues, such as the need for a feminist response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Arab women and girls. She believes women’s leadership is the strongest vehicle for peace and sustainable development. Lina’s piece I Hate International Women’s Day has resonated with women’s rights activists worldwide. 


Her work in support of women in Afghanistan was featured on CNN, leading to a live CNN interview on this topic. She continues to advocate for women’s rights worldwide, with appearances on France24, CNN Greece, BBC, Good Morning America, and others.


Lina sits on the board of numerous global women’s rights organizations including SheDecides, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Forced Migration Review, Society of Gender Professionals, Global Women’s Institute, and others. Lina has received various awards and recognitions including the Gender Equality Top 100 worldwide in 2018 and 2019 and a Vital Voices fellowship for 2021 for outstanding women leaders. She was recognized by the Women’s Media Center as one of their Progressive Women’s Voices for 2021 and is featured in their database of experts. Lina is also a Women in Power fellow for 2022.

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Lina's Book

Afghan women were at the forefront of global agendas in late 2001, fueled by a mix of media coverage, humanitarian intervention and military operations. Calls for "liberating" Afghan women were widespread. Women's roles in Afghanistan have long been politically divisive, marked by struggles between modernization and tradition.

lina abirafeh - MEDIA

Women, politics, and the state have always been intertwined in Afghanistan, and conflicts have been fueled by attempts to challenge or change women's status. It may appear that we have come full circle twenty years later, in late 2021, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban once more. Women's rights in Afghanistan have been stripped away, and any gains--however tenuous--now appear lost. Today, the country navigates both a humanitarian and a human rights crisis. This book measures the rhetoric of liberation and the physical and ideological occupations of Afghanistan over the twenty-year period from 2001 through 2021 through the voices, perspectives, and experiences of those who are implicated in this reality--Afghan women.

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