Aya Chebbi’s journey as a Pan-African feminist and advocate for the liberation of African women and girls began as a young voice for democracy in Tunisia’s 2010-2011 Revolution. In a country ready for change, Aya emerged as a fearless force, amplifying the voices of youth and standing as a beacon of hope that would inspire a generation. Her advocacy helped topple a twenty-three-year dictatorship, and in the years that followed, Aya’s influence only grew.
In 2018, Aya was appointed as the African Union’s (AU) first-ever Youth Envoy, making her the youngest diplomat in the AU Chairperson’s Cabinet. From this groundbreaking role, she introduced the concept of “Intergenerational Co-leadership,” sparking a new approach to youth inclusion in political leadership across Africa. In her three-year tenure, she engaged with over 30 Heads of State and more than 190 global leaders, passionately pushing the youth agenda across Africa and the diaspora. Her efforts resulted in tangible policy shifts and a notable increase in youth appointments across the continent.
Aya also mobilized the Youth Silencing the Guns Campaign, which quickly became the AU’s largest youth-led platform for advancing the Youth, Peace, and Security agenda. This movement led to the adoption of the premier Continental Framework for Youth, Peace, and Security by the AU’s Peace and Security Council, marking a milestone in youth inclusion and peace advocacy. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Aya’s leadership continued to shine as she engaged millions of young Africans, culminating in the impactful Africa Youth Lead Policy Paper.
Aya’s influence transcends the borders of Africa. She served on prominent councils and commissions, such as the World Refugee Council, the Oxfam Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct, and the WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Her voice and insights have helped shape some of the most significant reports in humanitarian, gender, and development fields, earning her a place among BMW’s Responsible Leaders, Obama Leaders, and the Rockefeller Bellagio Center fellows.
Her passion for leadership doesn’t end with her advocacy work. She is also the founder and president of the Nala Feminist Collective (Nalafem), Africa’s largest multigenerational platform of women politicians and activists working toward transformative feminist leadership across the continent. Aya hosts the “I AM NALA” podcast, where she amplifies women’s voices from around the world, and she runs Chebbi House, a personal brand offering coaching, online leadership courses, and Afro-inspired clothing.
Aya’s trailblazing career has earned her prestigious recognitions, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Campaign Award in 2019 and the Global Leadership Award from Vital Voices in 2024. Named one of Forbes Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women, she continues to push boundaries in advocacy and representation.
Now, in an exciting new chapter, Aya has been appointed as the Global Champion on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Youth Liaison to the United Nations Special Representative and Under Secretary-General (SRSG) Pramila Patten.
Aya, what inspired you to create Nalafem, the behemoth multigenerational feminist alliance, and how has it evolved since its inception?
Working in the Pan-African space for the last 15 years between activism and diplomacy with African member states and multilateral institutions, I realized more and more the systemic discrimination of women from leadership. I have worked with bold young women who are breaking barriers, paving the way as the first and the youngest to innovate, occupy leadership positions, and show that women and girls deserve equal opportunities and can be whatever they want to be. I thought: ‘What would happen if we get all these bold young African women together on one platform? How loud can our voice get? How fast can the gender agenda move on the African continent? How much narrative and discourse can we change? And how far can we push political will and enter politics en masse if only we come together?’
So, I started Nalafem in 2021 to build an army of women to take charge of the continent. It was a year of momentum for the Generation Equality Forums, so I decided to launch the platform during the Paris forum. We are ministers, parliamentarians, Afropreneurs, writers, artists, activists, diplomats, farmers, and everything in between. Since then, Nalafem has grown rapidly with the guidance of an incredible advisory council of 20 women leaders to Nalafem100, a multigenerational community of 100 women fostering intergenerational co-leadership and honest governance. We graduated 15 young women politicians from our fellowship’s first cohort and trained over 50,000 young women from 42 African countries through Nalafem Academy. We hosted three summits in Nigeria, Kenya, and Namibia, with over 500 participants shaping national politics and curating an ecosystem of support and solidarity for women political leaders.
Nala means ‘lioness,’ ‘queen,’ and ‘gift’ in Kiswahili and other African languages, embodying what the women and girls we serve every day represent.
You’ve mobilized women politicians and activists across Africa. What does transformative feminist leadership look like to you, and how do you see it changing the future of governance?
“Transformative leadership is simply a leadership that delivers governance to people, uplifting the livelihoods and opportunities we deserve as Africans. For this to be achieved, transformative leadership must be both gender- and generation-inclusive.
Our continent is rich in natural and human resources. We have 60% of the world’s arable land, 90% of its raw material reserves, 33% of its diamonds, and 40% of its global gold reserves. Our generation struggles with the contradiction of why we can nourish the economies and markets of the world but cannot feed ourselves when the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone could feed the entire continent. Why are so many of our brightest young, educated doctors, teachers, engineers, and entrepreneurs serving other countries and not ours? Why do we have the world’s most youthful population but also the largest refugee and displaced population? Why are we dealing with a 21st-century economy with a 20th-century education? Why are we extending retirement ages and presidential terms when we have a youthful labor force? Why and why?
It’s not about a lack of anything in Africa. It’s a lack of inclusive generational feminist leadership. That is the answer.
Pan-Africanism is central to your work. How do you envision a united Africa, and what role do women play in achieving that vision?
A Pan-African united continent is a borderless Africa with open borders where we trade freely, study in each other’s universities, and serve each other’s institutions. It is an Africa where African citizenship is recognized and no one is left stateless, as an asylum seeker, or displaced. An Africa where young people are treated as humans no matter their tribe, religion, country, race, gender, or name. It is an Africa where my liberation is your liberation above national interests.
African women have always played a critical role in this vision. In fact, there is no Pan-Africanism without feminism. It is anti-Pan-African to reduce women to maternal functions or seek to control their bodies, minds, and desires in the name of culture, faith, or any other excuse. The objectification of women derives its roots from colonialism and racism, against which Africanism emerged to fight. Therefore, patriarchy is a threat to Pan-Africanism. When you support this ‘ubuntu’ concept, the narrative shouldn’t be about helping those poor women who don’t have rights; it’s about transnational solidarity and partnership with feminist leaders to drive positive change.
African women have led the liberation struggle; African women are the CFOs of African households. It is time that African women occupy the seats at African Union summits as heads of state and government to lead the Pan-African project.
As the African Union’s first Special Envoy on Youth, you held significant influence. How did that role challenge you, and what’s one change you’re most proud of having championed?
I am proud of the legacy of this role. Being the first AU Youth Envoy, I had a blank canvas to build something meaningful for young people and be a vehicle of change. Establishing an office, co-creating its first action plan with young Africans, operating with zero budget, and fundraising millions to support youth initiatives was a tough marathon. It was not the lack of resources or competence; we’ve already proven that young people can deliver excellence and impact. The challenge was the lack of political will and confidence. I had to sit every day with older male policymakers and decision-makers, convincing them why they should care about their youthful populations.
Navigating multilateral institutions did not protect me from experiencing ageism and sexism. I was constantly confronted with patriarchy, including chauvinism and mansplaining. It remains challenging as a young woman to travel the continent and occupy leadership spaces in male-dominated institutions. You still encounter those who don’t take you seriously and those who invite you to ‘finish the meeting in their hotel room.’ Many were intimidated by my presence and resistant to change, but we eventually opened doors, spaces, and minds.
I am proud of it all, from the largest youth mobilization across Africa for pandemic response during COVID-19 to the peace and security mobilization through the Youth Silencing the Guns campaign. In South Sudan, I worked to promote young people as peacebuilders rather than gun-holders. As part of the campaign, I proudly witnessed over one thousand guns collected in voluntary disarmament. By the end of my mandate, more young people were appointed to ministerial and other portfolios than ever since the 80s. It was all achieved because I worked with young people for what was possible, rather than fighting what we were told wasn’t.
Nalafem brings together women from different generations. How do you balance the perspectives of younger and older feminists to create a unified movement?
I developed a concept I call ‘Intergenerational Co-Leadership’ because conflict on the continent is aggravated by the lack of communication between generations. The generation that fought for independence, the generation that built the African nation, and the current youthful population navigate a world of continued violence and inequality. If we don’t address this gap now, it will widen by the end of this century.
Generational collaboration can move us faster. I made alliances with senior women and elders in the intergovernmental space who opened doors for me. There were times when the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, would give me her seat in an all-male panel at closed diplomatic forums, or when Dr. Vera Songwe, former chief of the UN Economic Commission, would place me in the front row of peace talks when others had pushed me to the back. I learned from women like them that with every challenge comes an opportunity. I turned my frustration into innovation.
For me, allyship among generations is essential because, with the wisdom of elders and the innovation of young people, we can serve this continent. Tough conversations between older and young feminists are a priority at Nalafem Summits. Inheriting systems we did not design is setting our generation up for failure. The danger is that if we do not start ‘co-leading’ now and reforming failing systems, we cannot break this cycle, bridge the generational gap, and foster healing. Our efforts to convene these dialogues and dismantle gatekeeping have become a space for mentorship and sisterhood among generations on the continent.
The more our elders realize that we belong to a movement of young women who are unapologetic disruptors for our legitimate rights, the more they listen and understand that we take to the streets when no one listens, because we have agency. At this point in time, we all have the historic responsibility, here and now, to make the right political choices that are fully funded, accountable, and informed by the women and girls working on these issues day in and day out. We cannot deny the reality of today because it did not exist or was denied yesterday. We might disagree on tools, language, and ideologies, but our mission is one of gender equality.
Despite your immense influence, you’ve been blacklisted from Egypt since 2014. How has that shaped your activism and resilience?
In 2010, I was a 23-year-old revolutionary, part of the youth movement that ended the 23-year dictatorship in Tunisia and changed the course of history. We inspired Egyptian youth to start their uprising, and we supported their fight for freedom. When Egypt’s dictator, Mubarak, was ousted, I visited Egypt to observe the 2012 election and took part in a couple of forums and organizing related to Women Living Under Muslim Laws, galvanizing the region’s solidarity and tackling issues in Egypt related to sexual harassment and virginity tests in protests. In 2014, as I was transiting in Egypt, I was detained for 12 hours, interrogated by security intelligence, and then deported to Tunis. I was able to visit Egypt under Presidential invitations during my diplomatic missions; however, to this day, I cannot enter Egypt without a Presidential permit.
What I have learned from that ban experience early on in my activism is the importance of a support system. Before my phone was confiscated during detention, I was able to send one email to a list of 50+ journalists, lawyers, and activists, and with that single email, the information spread. By the time I landed in Tunis, the morning news was covering my ban in both Tunisia and Egypt. Having support systems in activism, politics, or whatever industry you are in is the number one investment one has to make. It can save your life, like it saved mine.
Similarly, that’s why I am building Nalafem, because young women, in particular, need a support system for overcoming hurdles and celebrating wins. They need an affiliation that can act quickly, stand behind them, and be the sounding board and fuel for them to occupy and maintain the leadership positions they deserve.
What advice can you give to activists or politicians to take action to empower women in their daily lives?
Today we need to ask ourselves, what is the collective priority for humanity right now? Not just for your country, or your political or financial institution, or even your non-profit organization, classroom, or digital app.
Once you acknowledge it, you can call out misogyny and amplify lived experiences of inequality, change discriminatory laws, enforce progressive policies, fund women’s initiatives, pay a girl’s school fees, provide equal pay for your staff, look around the table of your daily meetings and make sure young women are heard, and treat the women in your life right.
Just be a feminist every single day, just like women try to resist every single day.
Beyond the headlines and high-level diplomacy, who is Aya Chebbi when the workday ends? How do you stay grounded amidst the global attention?
I am a flame of energy, full of life and curiosity. I’m witty and prone to banter. I stay grounded by spending time writing, painting, and swimming. Silence is my favorite painkiller; I love taking long silent walks in the Medina of Tunis and meditating on the shores of the Mediterranean in Sidi Bou Saïd. Now that I live in Nairobi, my long walks are in Karura Forest.
I love learning about the world. I’ve traveled to over 100 countries and still feel the world is wide.
I believe in being coherent with myself, living what I preach, acting on what I say, and trying what I don’t know.
