Najiba Ayubi

Journalist, activist and woman – Najiba Ayubi has a lot of handicaps in a country famed for its warlords. But the managing director of The Killid Group – a non-profit media network that includes two of the country’s most popular magazines (Killid Weekly and Mursal Weekly) and eight radio stations with a total of 12 million listeners – does not let herself be intimidated. When a police chief told her, “You realize you are a woman, don’t you,” she responded by broadcasting the report he wanted to suppress. When two gunmen burst into her home and terrified her mother, she reacted as she does to all threats – without fear. In 2013, the International Women’s Media Foundation gave her its Courage in Journalism Award.