Forbes magazine has recognized Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser as one of the most influential women on the planet. The wife of the Father Emir of Qatar and the mother of the current Emir, Her Highness has had a direct hand in setting education and social reforms in her country for more than two decades and her efforts are now helping bring education to children in the most unlikely corners of the globe.
Sheikha Moza plays a key role in supporting the Qatar’s National Vision a far-reaching agenda to transform the country into a robust, knowledge-based society by 2030. She is highly active on the international stage, spearheading projects to promote education and human development not only in her own nation, but throughout the world. Her own Educate A Child initiative, which she launched at the WISE conference in Doha last November, is already helping to provide quality primary education to over half a million children in some of the most challenging circumstances and regions of the world.In January 2016, Sheikha Moza was appointed as a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate, through which she committed to advocating for access to quality education around the world.
Among Sheikha Moza’s numerous international projects is Education Above All (EAA), a global initiative that aims to build a worldwide movement that fosters development, with a particular focus on areas affected by poverty, conflict and disaster, the needs of children, and the empowerment of youth and women. Her other projects include the Silatech initiative to address the growing challenge of youth employment in the Middle East and North Africa.
Domestically, she serves as Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), a private non-profit organization founded in 1995. Its flagship project is Education City, which serves as a hub of academic excellence and houses branch campuses of renowned international universities and institutions. QF is also engaged in numerous scientific research and economic and social development projects. She also chairs Sidra Medicine, a new, dynamic training and research hospital that is envisaged to become a leading institution for women and children’s specialty care.
Her Highness is no figurehead leader either. Her reputation as a hands-on, active participant in literally every endeavor she undertakes is legendary. Ban Ki-moon, former secretary-general of the United Nations and co-chair of the Ban Ki-moon Center for Global Citizens said “Her Highness Sheikha Moza is so passionate in leading the campaign for education”.
In a region of the world often questioned about its commitment to women’s rights, it is a woman leading the way for social reform. Simeon Kerr and Roula Kharaf described her in the Financial Times this way “Sheikha Moza, matriarch of the modern Gulf”
Among Sheikha Moza’s many honors are the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service in 2013. In June 2009, she was inducted into the Academie des Beaux Arts de l’Institut de France (Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of France), the prestigious French society that generates awareness of the arts through education and helps develop artistic relationships on an international level. In 2007, Sheikha Moza was presented the prestigious Chatham House Award for her contributions to improving international relations.
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