Alanoud Alsharekh

Alanoud Alsharekh is a Kuwaiti women's rights activist and a founding member of Abolish 153 (also known as Abolish Article 153), a campaign calling to end honour killings in Kuwait. She has been awarded the Ordre national du Mérite and was one of the BBC 100 Women in 2019.

Early life and education Alsharekh was born in Kuwait. She studied at Al Bayan Bilingual School and would have graduated in 1992 but could not due to the invasion of Kuwait. She studied English literature at King's College London. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1996, before moving to SOAS University of London to study applied linguistics. She was supported by a scholarship from Kuwait University.

Career After completing her PhD she was appointed a research associate at SOAS. She joined Uppsala University where she became interested in literature of the Middle East. and Kuwait University. She is simultaneously director of the Ibtkar Strategic Consultancy. In this capacity she has worked to support women's rights both in Kuwait and overseas. Ibtkar led the "Empowering Kuwaiti Women in Politics" program, which included a year of training for Kuwaiti women in political leadership. Alongside training women in Kuwait, Ibtkar has run culturally sensitive training for Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Royal College of Art. She has worked as a gender consultant for both UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme. Alsharekh is the founding director of the "Abolish 153" campaign, that looks to end honour killings in Kuwait. She is also head of department at the Arab Open University. She serves on the advisory board of the Global Diplomatic Forum.

Awards and honours 2013 Doha Institute for Graduate Studies Arab Prize in Social Science and Humanities Research for best publication in a foreign journal 2015 European Union Chaillot Prize for Human Rights 2016 Ordre national du Mérite 2019 BBC 100 Women

Selected publications