Zahra' Langhi

Zahra’ Langhi

Founder & CEO, Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace

Region(s): Middle East
Country of focus: Egypt, Libya
Based in Beirut

Details

Current Occupation: Founder & CEO, Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace
Organization/Institution: Libyan Women's Platform for Peace
Language: English, Arabic

Media

Libyan politicians’ pay goes up 40% as election impasse continues The Guardian Jan 12, 2023

In Libya, Mystery Shrouds Handover of Lockerbie Suspect to U.S. New York Times Dec 13, 2022

Libya moves closer to holding high-risk presidential elections The Guardian Oct 24, 2021

On Libya’s Stabilization Conference Libya Herald Oct 24, 2021

Female Libyan activists demand politicians stick to election timetable  The Guardian April 5, 2021

A war inside the war: Pivotal peace-building Libyan women fight gender gap and violence The New Arab Mar 8, 2021

Sufi cultural sites caught in crossfire of Libya civil war Reuters Mar 16, 2020

Sudan’s female revolutionaries must beware fate that befell women in Libya – Guardian, May 3, 2019

Zahra’ Langhi: Why the Libyan Revolution Failed and What Might Work  Ted Talk Dec 2012

Libyan activist Zahra’ Langhi on ‘feminine discourse’ in political reconciliation The Stream, Al Jazeera Mar 22, 2017

The Other Travel Ban The World is not Talking About– Independent, Feb. 26, 2017

Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace: Seven Years of Impasse: Libya’s Turbulent Transition

Featured in Seven Women to Watch in Global Politics Guardian March 7, 2014

C0-produced and hosted Libya Speaks Show on Libya’s Democratic transition.

Publications:

Gender, Women & the Arab Spring

United States Institute of Peace: Libya’s Religious Sector. Efforts of Peace building (English, Arabic available)

The Journal of North African Studies: Gender & State Building in Libya: Towards a Politics of Inclusion

Zahra’ Langhi (@ZahraALanghi) is the co-founder and CEO of the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace (@LWPP_Org), a socio-political movement focused on peacebuilding, inclusivity and gender equality. She was a member of  the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), a group of 75 men and women from Libya, supported by United Nations programs, established to create a roadmap in 2021 to democratic elections.

Through the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace, Zahra’ led an advocacy campaign for electoral system reform in Libya and coordinated the first meetings between civil society activists, senior revolutionaries, security and intelligence officers, and parliamentarians. From 2016 to 2018, Zahra’ launched two strategic partnerships with the two oldest Islamic religious institutions, Es-Zitouna University and Al-Azhar, in an effort to bring together civil society and religious leaders from North Africa and the Sahel to address extremism and human rights.

Zahra’ has contributed significantly to the body of research and literature on Libya. In partnership with United States Institute of Peace, she led a research project that mapped Libya’s religious actors and their potential roles in peacebuilding and countering violent extremism.

Zahra’ holds an MA in Islamic History from the American University in Cairo and is a PhD candidate specializing in religion, violence and reconciliation at Friedrich Schiller University at Jena.  She has served as an advisory board member of the Arab Human Development (UNDP) Report on Youth, and as an advisor to the Preparatory Committee of the National Dialogue in Libya.

In 2018, The Rockefeller Foundation named Zahra’ one of five women leaders introducing transformative change around the world.