By Stepfeed Conference 

Nowadays, everything is digital – from news gathering to activism.

But the industry wouldn’t have been the same without the contribution of Arabs, who have become a force of their own in the digital sphere.

Women’s History Month is here, and what better way to celebrate than to look back at some of the most powerful Arab women who contributed to this industry?

1. Sara Yasin, BuzzFeed

Sara Yasin is a Palestinian-American journalist leading the News Curation team for BuzzFeed News in New York.

She has previously worked at GlobalPost and Mic.

Yasin has a passion for monitoring how people consume news, and the impact false stories about Muslims has had on people’s behavior and attitude.

2. Kim Ghattas, BBC

Source: kimghattas.comAs an international affairs correspondent at the BBC in Washington DC, Lebanese Kim Ghattas extensively covered the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.

Before moving to DC, Ghattas covered the Middle East for a decade for international publications including the BBC and the Financial Times from her base in Beirut. 

In 2006, she was part of an Emmy-Award-winning BBC team covering the Lebanon-Israel conflict.

Ghattas also writes a regular column for Foreign Policy magazine. Her work has also been published by the Daily Beast, TIME magazine, and the Washington Post.

3. Dima Khatib, AJ+

Source: qatar.northwestern.eduIn 1997, Syrian Dima Khatib joined Al Jazeera as a broadcast journalist in the organization’s Doha newsroom.

She quickly became a news producer – managing the coverage of the channel during the Iraq War.

She set up bureaus in China and Venezuela for the network and was the first female bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Latin America.

During a 19-year-span, Dima has reported from over thirty countries.

In 2012, Dima was named as the most connected woman on Twitter in the Middle East.

4. Dena Takruri, AJ+

Source: YouTubePalestinian-American Dena Takruri is a journalist, on-air presenter and producer at AJ+ based in San Francisco, California.

Takruri began her broadcast career in 2007 as co-host and producer on a satellite television program called “What’s Happening” that aired on Arab Radio and Television Network (ART).

Between 2007 and 2008, Takruri worked as a research assistant with Dr. Rochelle Davis of Georgetown University – where she got the opportunity to interview U.S. military personnel who served in Iraq, for a project on their perceptions of Iraqi culture and U.S. military cultural training.

The research findings were later published in a chapter of a book titled “Anthropology and Global Counter Insurgency.”

5. Sara Hamdan, Google

Source: sarahamdan.comSara Hamdan is currently editor of Think with Google MENA, a blog at Google that’s all about embracing the digital sphere.

She also has a travel and style blog called Holidays in Heels. 

Prior to this, Hamdan was the main writer for The International New York Times in Dubai, covering business and culture for six years.

6. Amani El-Khatahtbeh, Muslim Girl

Source: Instagram/AmaniJordanian Palestinian Amani Al-Khatahtbeh is all about the empowerment of women, especially in today’s Islamophobic world.

She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl, a website targeting Muslim women in the United States with a tagline that is all about speaking up.

“Muslim Women Talk Back,” is the website’s motto.

Al-Khatahtbeh’s work has not gone unnoticed. She was named in Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2016 under the media category.

Her face has also been featured on several billboards in Times Square for her incredible and empowering work.

That’s not all. Al Khatahtbeh regularly appears on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera, where she comments on political, social and women’s issues.

“I’m on a mission to make history by empowering Muslim women’s media representation through developing the first mainstream media network by and for Muslim women,” she said, according to Forbes.