Zoya Rouhana received her bachelor’s degree in business administration at American University of Beirut (AUB). She is an expert in Gender Based Violence, child sexual abuse, and trafficking in women and children. She was the Social and Economic Research Assistant at The Consultation and Research Institute from 1978 till 1985, and the general coordinator from 1997 till 2005 at the Lebanese Council Resist Violence against Women. She was also a general coordinator at the Arab Women’s Court (an Arab network to resist violence against women), from 1996 till 2008. In 2005 Ms. Rouhana became the director at KAFA, Lebanon. She was the Secretary of Women’s Affairs, at Secours Populaire Libanais.
Ms. Rouhana initiated several campaigns and projects dealing with women’s issues, specifically breaking the silence about the forms of violence against women and providing them with assistance. During her career, she contributed to Establishing and managing the Listening and Counseling Center for Abused Women in Lebanon and creating and operating the hotline service for women. Ms. Rouhana organized the first regional public hearing on violence against women in the Arab world in Beirut and organized several regional meetings on violence against women. She managed to work on drafting the law which was passed to the parliament and the related campaign to protect women from family violence. In, 2007, Ms. Rouhana won The U.S. Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage award.