Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Director, Ibtkar Strategic Consultancy
Alanoud Al-Sharekh is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Al-Sharekh is the director of Ibtkar Strategic Consultancy, leading youth and gender leadership training programs in Kuwait and the Gulf region, and a MENA associate at Chatham House. She is a founder of the EU Chaillot prize-winning Abolish153 campaign to end honor killings and of Mudhawi’s List, a platform to support women running for political office. Her research won the Arab Prize for best publication in a foreign journal in 2014, and includes books such as The Gulf Family, and Popular, Political Cultures of the Arabian Gulf States and Tribalism and Political Power in the Gulf examining the persistent importance of family and tribe in modern Gulf politics and society. She was awarded the knighthood of the National Order of Merit by the French government in 2016 for her dedication to improving women’s rights in the region and was chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 most influential and inspiring women in the world in 2019.
On December 1, AGSIW hosted a discussion examining the roles that tribes play in popular participation in government and policymaking in the Gulf.
On October 7, AGSIW hosted a virtual panel discussion on the future of Kuwait's leadership.
The path to put women on the bench in Kuwait has been long and controversial. Without real political will to increase opportunities for women, the wheels of change will continue to turn slowly.
