A visionary for social entrepreneurship and an advocate for women's development for more than 30 years, Dr. Iman Bibars is Vice President of Ashoka Global and Regional Director of Ashoka Arab World. She is an outspoken voice for socio-economic justice and the empowerment of underprivileged communities and women, and has worked to heighten national and international awareness of urgent social development issues throughout the Arab World.
Bibars has collaborated with activists, politicians, community leaders and journalists to promote and impart these values, participating in the Obama Presidential Summit on Leadership, serving as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and working with Amr Moussa both when he was Egyptian Ambassador to the United Nations and during his recent Presidential campaign. She makes frequent media appearances, often speaking about social entrepreneurship or the rights of women on television and writing for the national and international press.
She is also the co-founder and current chairperson of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW), Egypt’s very first microfinance organization that provides credit and legal aid for impoverished female heads of household.
Bibars is the author of several books on gender issues including Victims and Heroines: Women, Welfare and the Egyptian State, and The Women of Tahrir, which details the most recent experiences of women during the Egyptian uprising. Bibars also published one of the first books written in Arabic on US President Barack Obama– Dreams of a Good Fellow.
