Esra'a Al Shafei is the founder and director of Mideast Youth, a network of online platforms that amplify under-reported and marginalized voices throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Al Shafei is a recipient of the Berkman Award from Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society for "outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society", and is currently a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow. Previously, she was an Echoing Green Fellow and a Senior TED Fellow.
In 2011 she was featured in Fast Company as one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business" and awarded the Monaco Media Prize. In 2014, she was featured in Forbes' "30 Under 30" list of social entrepreneurs making an impact in the world. In 2015, she received the "Most Courageous Media" Prize from Free Press Unlimited.
She is based in Bahrain.