Waris Dirie (Somali: Waris Diiriye, Arabic: ????? ?????) (born in 1965) is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist.

Waris Dirie was born into a nomadic clan in Gaalkacyo, Somalia in 1965. At the age of thirteen, she fled her family in order to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man.

She landed in London where she lived with and worked for wealthy relatives. Waris later worked at a local McDonald's, trying to make ends meet after a falling out with her hosts.

By chance, Waris was discovered by photographer Terence Donovan, who helped secure for her the cover of the 1987 Pirelli Calendar.

From there, her modeling career took off, scoring advertisements for top designers such as Chanel, Levi's, L'Oréal and Revlon.

Sahar Khalifeh (Arabic: ??? ??????) is a Palestinian writer born in 1942 in Nablus of the West Bank.

After studying at the University of Birzeit, in the Palestinian occupied territories, she received a Fulbright scholarship and went to continue her studies in the US.

She got an MA in English Literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a PhD in Women's Studies from the University of Iowa before returning to Palestine in 1988.

She is the founder of the Women's Affairs Center in Nablus, which now has branches in Gaza and Amman, Jordan. She is considered one of the most prominent Palestinian writers.

Her works include several novels and essays, translated into several languages, including Hebrew, as well as non-fiction writing.

Nawal El Saadawi (Arabic: ???? ?????????) (born October 27, 1931) is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society.

Saadawi was born in the small village of Kafr Tahla, the eldest of nine children. Her father was a government official in the Ministry of Education, who had fought against the rule of the King and the British in the revolution of 1919.

As a result he was exiled to a small town in Nile Delta and the government punished him by not promoting him for 10 years. He was relatively progressive and taught her self-respect and to speak her mind. He also encouraged her to study the Arabic language.

Both her parents died at a young age leaving Saadawi with the sole burden of providing for a large family. Saadawi graduated as a medical doctor in 1955 from Cairo University.

Tehmina Durrani (Urdu: تہمینہ درانی), a Durrani Pashtun, is the daughter of the late former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan and former Chairman of Pakistan International Airlines, Shahkur Ullah Durrani and grand-daughter of Sir Sikandar Hyat.

Her first book, My Feudal Lord, caused controversy in Pakistan’s male-dominated and women-baiting society describing her abusive and traumatic marriage with Ghulam Mustafa Khar, then Chief Minister and later Governor of Punjab and her experience of a feudal society.

She is today involved in the emancipation of women in Pakistan.

An Afghan Pathan by descent, and born into an educated and influential family of status, Durrani's was just 17, when she married Anees Khan, and they had one daughter, Tania. She divorced him in 1976 and then married Khar. In the process she had to give up claim of her daughter's custody.

Jin In is Eastern born, Western bred, with a global vision to transform the world to value the world’s poorest girls. Since she was nine, she has served poor communities.

She began in the American urban slums then those in developing countries, and everywhere she went, she saw the same picture—the feminization of global suffering.

Even more, from female infanticide and child marriage, to female genital mutilation and acid attacks by the Taliban, she recognized gender inequity and human rights violation starts early.

This is because girls are not valued in many societies. Jin shares her own story, here.