Zahra’ Langhi

Zahra’ Langhi (@zlanghi) is the co-founder and CEO of the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace (LWPP), a socio-political movement focused on peacebuilding, inclusivity and gender equality. She is in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), a group of 75 men and women from Libya, supported by United Nations programs, who are preparing Libya for democratic elections scheduled on Dec. 24, 2021.

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.