Skip to content
Biography

Biography

Dr Mai Yamani was born in Cairo during the Suez war. Yamani’s mother, Laila Suliman Faidhi, is from Mosul, Iraq and her father, Ahmed Zaki Yamani, is from Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Her early education included schooling in Baghdad, Mecca, and Lausanne. She completed her B.A. in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania and her M.St. and D.Phil. in Social Anthropology from Oxford University. She was the first Saudi Arabian to receive a doctorate from Oxford.

She was the first Saudi Arabian to receive a doctorate from Oxford.

Black and white image of a younger Dr Yamani

Dr Yamani’s career

She began her career as a lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah and later at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She has been a scholar and senior researcher at leading international think tanks and universities including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Brookings Institution, Chatham House, Georgetown University, the London School of Economics and Mosul University.

She has advised governments and parliaments in the US, Middle East, Asia and Europe as well as senior management of large multinationals including Goldman Sachs, Shell and BP.

Image of Dr Yamani speaking at Georgetown University

She has advised governments and parliaments in the US, Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Dr Yamani is author of several books including Changed Identities: The Challenge of the New Generation in Saudi Arabia and Cradle of Islam: The Hijaz and the Quest for an Arabian Identity.

Her articles have been published in over 100 newspapers around the world including the New York Times, the Guardian, the Independent, el Pais and al Hayat. She has been frequently interviewed on CNN, the BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CBS and ABN.

Dr Yamani’s Awards

Mockup of Dr Yamani's Award
Wisam Medal of Respect: ‘Courage is a Woman’
2006

“What is this combination, whose elements all come together in one woman?”

Read more

Award citation

What is this combination, whose elements all come together in one woman? She was born in Cairo, but she is a Saudi. Her father was Saudi Arabia’s most famous oil minister; her mother is Iraqi, so she grew up in Basra. Her collected social and human experience comes from a life of moving, between Cairo, Jeddah, Baghdad and London.

So what is the sum of this diversity? Dr Mai Zaki Yamani was born in 1956 at the outbreak of the Suez War and at the height of pan-Arabism. She is one of the most prominent specialists in Arab and Saudi affairs and the effects of globalisation on Arabs.

She is now the talk of publishers throughout the world, after her book Cradle of Islam was published.

Dr Mai Yamani works as a senior researcher at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. She obtained her doctorate at Oxford University.

Dr Mai Yamani, who possesses a huge amount of courage, works on human, political and social rights. She is a research associate at the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at SOAS University of London and an academic advisor at Georgetown University. Before her doctorate at Oxford, she was a lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University.

In addition to her book Cradle of Islam, she published Changed Identities: The Challenge of the New Generation in Saudi Arabia, Feminism and Islam and The Rule of Law in the Middle East and the Islamic World.

In an intensely conservative and traditional environment, it would be challenging for a woman to free her mind and to express her academic vision. In a liberal environment, the knowledgeable mind can serve their society of origin.

Beset by thorns and mines, Mai Yamani possessed enough courage and awareness to overcome the obstacles in her path. For this and much more, she receives our respect and recognition and we therefore award her the Medal of Respect.