Galia Alrahal

Galia Alrahal is an esteemed feminist and advocate of women’s rights, winner of the Thomson Reuters Trust Power in Women award for her services and dedication to this cause. She is the Founder of Mazaya Center, a women's empowerment initiative in northwestern Syria. Founded in 2013, Mazaya now comprises eight centers, five childcare facilities, an online and printed magazine, and job placement and professional development hub for women.  

Ms. Alrahal led the establishment of the first women's library in Kafranbel, Idlib, in 2014. In the same year, she founded Mazaya magazine with the support of the Institute of War, Peace, and Reporting (IWPR) to train women journalists on reporting from warzones. She launched the Syrian Women's Affairs Bureau in 2015, providing training to women on therapeutic atmospheres as well as counseling to women victims of gender-based violence. 

Ms. Alrahal's work has received worldwide acclaim, as she visited the Oslo Freedom Conference with the Human Rights Fund (HRF) in 2018 and spoke at the EU's Women Rights event in New York in 2019. Ms. Alrahal is presently studying Nonviolence and Human Rights at Aunohr University in Lebanon.