Manal Rostom

ABOUT MANAL ROSTOM

Athlete and influencer who gained attention after becoming the first veiled Egyptian-Arab woman to be the face of Nike. An avid marathoner and mountaineer, she aims to be the first Egyptian woman to climb Mount Everest.

She is a PharmD who got her master's degree from the University of Alexandria.

She is the founder of the Facebook group Surviving Hijab, a prominent community of women who have made the decision to wear the veil.

She was born and raised in Kuwait. Her Arab-Egyptian parents do not wear or support the hijab - she started wearing it at age 19, after surviving a near-fatal car accident.

In April 2018, she was invited to Facebook's GMS conference, where she got to exchange ideas with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg . She posted a photo of this interaction to her Instagram.