Kawkab al-Thaibani

Kawkab Al-Thaibani (@Kawkab) is a women’s rights and human rights activist, communications expert, researcher and reporter from Yemen, currently based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Kawkab is the Co-Founder and Director of the Women4Yemen Network, a network of women activists united to empower, mobilize and advocate for women’s participation in resolving the Yemen conflict. She leads several advocacy initiatives for peace and gender equality in Yemen. As a result, she was recognized as one of TRT’s “Women of War” to highlight the significance of women’s role in peace.

Kawkab is also a member of the advisory board of the human rights platform “The Yemeni Archive”, a member of the Gender and Development Network (GADN) and worked as Regional Gender Advisor for ARK Group DMCC.

Kawkab has led strong advocacy and communications work to highlight the impact of the war on Yemenis and Yemeni mothers. In her work as a communications professional, researcher and journalist, she empowers women, especially at the grassroots level, to be more visible and heard. Her work stirred anger from security apparatus for writing about issues like rape inside prison, state violence, corruption and oppression of civil freedoms.

Kawkab holds a Master’s degree in Gender and Development from Sana’a University (Yemen) in a joint program with Riskolde University.