WMariam Behnam was an Iranian-born Emirati writer, diplomat and women's rights activist. After graduating from high school and beginning her career as a teacher in Pakistan, she returned to Iran and began to work on social improvement projects first in Teheran and later in Bandar Abbas. In the 1960s, she returned to Pakistan and served for eight years as a cultural attaché establishing cultural centers, libraries and promoting Iranian culture. She was honored with the Iranian Order of the Crown and a Pakistani badge of courage for remaining in the country and continuing her work during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, when other diplomats fled the country. Returning to Iran in 1972, she worked with the Ministry of Arts and Culture in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province and later the Hormozgan Province developing programs to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the areas.
WIbrahim Bin Mohammed Al Midfa was the first journalist in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, producing a handwritten news sheet called Oman newspaper in 1927. A prominent local intellectual at the time, he presided over regular meetings of local writers, poets and political activists at a time when British influence and presence in the Trucial States was beginning to be questioned by local community leaders.
WBassma Al Jandaly is a journalist based in the United Arab Emirates, she worked as a community and crime correspondent at an English based news paper Gulf news, and is known for her demonstrated interests in humanitarian causes.
WSultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is an Emirati commentator on Arab affairs and also a member of the Sharjah ruling family. Al-Qassemi is known for his use of Twitter and has been described by numerous media outlets as a prominent voice during the events of the Arab Spring. In February 2014 Al-Qassemi joined the Global Commission on Internet Governance and in the summer of 2014 became an MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow. In the Spring 2017 Al-Qassemi was a practitioner in residence at the Hagop Kevorkian Center of Near East Studies at New York University, where he offered a course on Politics of Middle Eastern Art. The Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut's Global Influence list of Arabic thought leaders ranked Al-Qassemi number 19 in 2018. Also in 2018 he was named a World Fellow in the Yale Greenberg World Fellows Program. Al-Qassemi is also the Chairman of Barjeel Geojit Securities, a joint-venture that was formed with Geojit Financial Services of India.
WHabib Yousef Abdullah Al Sayegh was an Emirati poet and writer. He was born in Abu Dhabi and obtained his degree in philosophy in 1977, and his master's in English and Arabic linguistics and translation in 1998 from the University of London. He worked in the fields of media and culture, as he was the Editor-in-Chief of Al Khaleej Newspaper. He was the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Writers Union, and the first Khaliji to become Secretary-General of the Arab Writers Union.
WYasser Hareb is a writer and TV presenter from the Emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai awarded Yasser Hareb, the Arab Social Media Influencers Award in the Positivity and Tolerance category in 2016. He was acting CEO and as vice president of culture and education at Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. Prior to that he was director of special projects at The Executive Office of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He was also secretary general of the Arab Strategic Forum and director of operations at the Dubai Institute for Human Development. Currently he is a member of Supreme National Committee for Tolerance established in the UAE, by the president, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to celebrate 2019 as the Year of Tolerance. He is known for his novel “Take Off Your Shoes” whose foreword is by Paulo Coelho. He is also a co-founder of Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies global forum, which is hosted annually by Abu Dhabi City.
WZeina Soufan is a Lebanese journalist and television host based in Dubai. Soufan is senior business editor at Dubai Media Incorporated and host of "Money Map" show on Dubai TV. She is also an independent author and digital content creator.