Zainab Salbi

Zainab Salbi with Riz Khan

Zainab Salbi is the co-founder and president of Women for Women International, an organisation that helps women in war-torn nations rebuild their lives.

Salbi grew up spending her holidays with the former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. To save her from his wandering eyes, this young woman’s mother arranged her escape from Iraq, and today she has rebuilt her life in America.

 

Through her organisation Women for Women International, Salbi has helped more than 50,000 victims of conflict find their feet by providing $24 million in aid. But for a woman who has done so much to expose and fight the human toll of war, it took some time to reveal the secrets of her own private horror.

She opened up in her book, Between Two Worlds – which documented her family’s relationship with the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. Now, the girl known to Saddam as the ‘pilot’s daughter’, has overcome her insecurities and is helping others to do the same through her organisation.