Leadership is about encouraging women to break their silence and

When Zainab Salbi, the humanitarian and founder of Women for Women International, said, “Leadership is about encouraging women to break their silence and tell their stories to the world,” she was not merely describing an act of speech — she was describing an act of rebirth. Her words carry the force of centuries of struggle, of voices long stifled and hearts long ignored. To speak one’s truth, especially as a woman in a world that has too often silenced the feminine voice, is an act of both courage and liberation. In her vision, leadership is not the command of others, but the empowerment of the voiceless, the gentle yet fierce art of helping others reclaim their right to exist, to feel, and to be heard.

The origin of this quote is rooted in Salbi’s own extraordinary life — a life shaped by both privilege and pain. Born in Iraq under the shadow of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, she grew up in a society where women’s silence was survival. Her father served as the dictator’s private pilot, and she saw firsthand how fear could twist truth into obedience. Later, as a refugee in America, she transformed her trauma into purpose. In 1993, she founded Women for Women International, an organization that has helped over half a million women survivors of war find their voices again through education, community, and self-reliance. From Bosnia to Rwanda, from Iraq to the Congo, she witnessed how storytelling became the first step in healing wounds that war and oppression could not destroy.

When Salbi says, “Leadership is about encouraging women to break their silence,” she challenges the shallow notions of leadership defined by power, dominance, or control. To her, true leadership is service through empathy — the ability to listen so deeply that another dares to speak. In the ancient sense, it is akin to the role of the elder, the wise guide who helps others rediscover their strength. Salbi’s leadership is not the leadership of the throne, but the leadership of the hearth — the gathering place where voices once extinguished begin to glow again. It is leadership that restores dignity through connection.

The phrase “tell their stories to the world” holds within it the key to transformation. Stories are the bridges of human understanding, the threads that weave together nations and generations. For too long, women’s stories were dismissed as private matters, confined to kitchens, diaries, or whispers. Yet it is in these stories — of birth and loss, of resilience and love — that the true history of humanity resides. Salbi understood that storytelling is power, for when one woman stands and tells her story, she invites another to rise beside her. And when enough stories are told, the silence that once suffocated becomes a chorus that can shake the walls of injustice.

History offers echoes of this truth. Consider Malala Yousafzai, the young girl who defied the Taliban to speak for education, her voice piercing through the fear that had silenced millions. Or think of Sojourner Truth, who stood before a hostile crowd in 1851 and declared, “Ain’t I a Woman?” — words that broke through centuries of prejudice and still ring through time. Each of these women became leaders not by seeking authority, but by telling their stories with unflinching truth. Through their courage, they ignited movements that transformed societies. Salbi stands among them, teaching that the first act of leadership is not to speak for others, but to help others find their own voice.

Her words also remind us that silence is not peace. Too often, the world mistakes quiet submission for harmony, forgetting that suppressed pain festers beneath the surface. Salbi teaches that breaking silence is not rebellion — it is restoration. To tell one’s story is to reclaim authorship of one’s life, to take the pen from the hand of oppression and write one’s truth in one’s own voice. When a woman tells her story, she not only heals herself; she heals her lineage, her community, her world. The act of storytelling becomes an act of salvation.

The lesson of Salbi’s words, then, is both timeless and urgent: lead by awakening others, not by overshadowing them. True leaders do not silence or command — they listen, uplift, and make space for truth to be spoken. Every person has the power to lead in this way: by encouraging others to share, by creating environments of trust and compassion, by celebrating the stories that define who we are. To be a leader in Salbi’s sense is to be a witness — to stand beside others as they rise into their own strength.

So let her wisdom be carried forward as a torch: to lead is to listen, and to listen is to liberate. Let us become leaders who create space for others to speak, who honor the voices that history tried to erase. Encourage the silenced to tell their stories — for each story is a flame, and together, these flames can light the way toward a more truthful, just, and compassionate world. For as Zainab Salbi teaches us, when women speak, the world listens — and when the world listens, it begins to heal.