Founding Members
Alanoud Alsharekh
Dr. Al-Sharekh directs Ibtkar Strategic Consultancy focusing on youth and gender leadership training programs, and is an associate fellow at the Chatham House MENA program and a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
Along with being a founding member of the Abolish 153 campaign, she is also a founder of Mudhawi’s List, a platform to support women running for political office in Kuwait.
Her research won the Arab Prize for best publication in a foreign journal in 2014 and includes books such as The Gulf Family, Popular and Political Cultures of the Arabian Gulf States, and more recently
Tribalism and Political Power in the Gulf.
She was awarded the knighthood of the National Order of Merit by the French Government in 2016 for her dedication to improving women’s rights in the region and was chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 most influential and inspiring women in the world in 2019.
Lulu M Al Sabah
Lulu M Al-Sabah is the former Director of the Middle East at Phillips de Pury & Company. Ms. Al-Sabah previously contributed to Canvas magazine and to Eastern Art Report. She currently contributes to Tribe magazine, which specializes on photography from the Arab world. In 2008 she curated an exhibition on modern artists from the Middle East at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
Ms. Al-Sabah launched JAMM, an art advisory company, in 2009 and hosted the first contemporary art auction in Kuwait in 2010 with further editions in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Since 2010, JAMM has hosted exhibitions in London, Kuwait and Dubai. She established a permanent exhibition space in Dubai in 2012.
JAMM offers a comprehensive art-management and consultancy service to private and corporate clients and deals predominantly with new and existing art collection management, commissioning of artworks, exhibitions and contemporary art auctions. Since 2015, Ms. Al-Sabah has curated exhibitions to fundraise for Abolish153
Sheikha Al Nafisi
Sheikha Al Nafisi participated in the campaign for women to vote in Kuwait, up until 2005. She co-owned a contemporary art gallery in Kuwait from 2001 to 2005 and continues to be involved in the art scene in the Middle East. Al-Nafisi also has 7 years of restaurant consultancy experience and produced two T.V. cooking shows.
As a young ambassador for the “Hayatt Breast Cancer Foundation”, she has organized art events to raise funds and awareness. Al-Nafisi has been part of the “Peace One Day” organization team for 3 years in a row.
Amira Behbehani
Amira Behbehani is a Kuwaiti self taught artist who began painting in 2001-2003 and participated in various international and local art exhibitions. In 2011 got involved in an international peace organization called PEACE ONE DAY and marked Kuwait the first Arab country to celebrate peace on the 21 September 2012, and in 2013 was appointed as the peace ambassador for WPMP (Peace Project Marker Project) in Kuwait.
Sundus Hamza
Sundus Hussain is the Managing Director of Al Abjar Holding Company. Her previous experience includes working as the CEO for Gulf Consulting Services and as Banking and Finance Manager for IBM Kuwait. Sundus Hussain excels at strategic planning, business strategy, change management and marketing strategy.
She graduated from Boston University and in conjunction with her professional career, has been involved as political activist to further democratic practices in Kuwait. Hamza worked as a consultant volunteer for Bait Abdullah BACCH, a children’s hospice. She co-founded Bayt Al Khidmah, an advocacy group for the protection of domestic workers in Kuwait, among other NGO engagements. Most recently, she has designed the anti-domestic violence app, Thoubha along with Abolish 153 member Nour Al-Mukhled.