Esra’a Al Shafei

Esra’a Al Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Majal (Mideast Youth) and its related projects, including CrowdVoice.org. Al Shafei is a senior TED fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by former CNN reporter George Webster as “an outspoken defender of free speech.” Al Shafei is a recipient of the Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2008 for “outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society.” She is also the recipient of the Monaco Media Prize, which acknowledges innovative uses of media for the betterment of humanity. The World Economic Forum listed her as one of “15 women changing the world in 2015.” That same year, she won the “Most Courageous Media” Prize from Free Press Unlimited. Al Shafei was selected as a 2017 director’s fellow at the MIT Media Lab. In 2018 she was listed as one of BBC’s 100 Women. She is also a promoter of music as a means of social change, and founded Mideast Tunes, which is currently the largest platform for underground musicians in the Middle East and North Africa.