SASKATOON – Recognizing her success at a young age, a Saskatoon-born doctor has been named one of the 30 physicians under 30 by Forbes, the American business magazine.
“It’s wonderful,” Dr. Alaa Murabit told CBC News.
“It was definitely an honor.”
Dr. Murabit lived in Saskatoon until she was 15 years old and later moved to Libya where she enrolled in medicine school and founded the Voice of Libyan Women, a non-profit organization that champions women’s participation in peace processes and conflict mediation.
With 15,000 submissions, Forbes’s 30 Under 30 boasts a selection rate of less than four percent, making the list more competitive than getting into universities like Harvard or Stanford.
Murabit, who was named in Forbes health care category list, serves as a UN high-level commissioner on health employment and economic growth and a UN sustainable development goals advocate.
“My greatest focus going forward is, ‘How do we look at this huge gap in supply and demand in health care?'” she said.
“[And] also in terms of the other occupations that contribute to a fully functioning society, to ensure that we don’t find ourselves in positions where we’re at risk of any external stresses or conflict.”
The honor is not the first for the young Muslim woman.
Dr. Murabit’s work has been recognized with a Marisa Bellisario International Humanitarian Award, and places on Newsweek’s “25 under 25 to watch” and BBC’s “100 top women” lists.
Her TED Talk, “What my religion really says about women,” was the “TED Talk of the Day” and named one of four “moving TED Talks to watch right now” by the New York Times.