Sara Akbar facts for kids

Sara Hussein Akbar (سارة أكبر) is a brave and important chemical engineer from Kuwait. She is also a strong supporter of women's rights. She helped start a company called Kuwait Energy and used to be its boss. Many people see her as a "national hero" because of her amazing work during the Kuwaiti oil fires. These fires were so big and dangerous that they were even shown in a famous movie called Fires of Kuwait, which was nominated for an Oscar.

For her efforts in putting out the fires, Sara Akbar received a special award called the Global 500 Roll of Honour from the United Nations Environmental Program. She is also one of the first women in the Arabian Peninsula to lead an oil company. In 2007, she served as a director for the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Early Life and Learning

Sara Akbar grew up in a big family in Kuwait. Her family had Iranian roots, and she had nine brothers and sisters. Her father worked as an oil driller, which means he helped find and bring oil out of the ground.

In 1981, Sara Akbar was part of the first group of students to graduate from Kuwait University with a degree in Chemical Engineering.

Her Career and Brave Actions

Sara Akbar started her career working in offices, but soon she became a petroleum engineer for the Kuwait Oil Company. She later worked in dangerous fire-fighting jobs, managed petroleum engineering, and was a specialist in research and development.

Between 1981 and 1999, she worked in the oil business at Kuwait Energy, a company she helped create and where she became the CEO. She was the first woman to hold such a high position in the oil and gas industry in the Middle East.

Fighting the Oil Fires

In 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, Saddam Hussein's army attacked most of Kuwait's oil wells. About 80% of them were set on fire! Sara Akbar was the only woman on a special team of engineers who bravely decided to put out these dangerous oil well fires, even though they were told not to. She believed her deep knowledge of the oil wells helped her team succeed. She said, "I worked on the oilfields, offshore and onshore, day and night, and the result of this work was that I knew the oilfields very well... There were 800 wells and I knew every single one like the back of my hand."

Their heroic efforts were later shown in the 1992 documentary Fires of Kuwait, which was nominated for an Oscar.

Other Important Roles

From 2001 to 2005, Sara Akbar worked as a business development manager for the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company.

In 2006, she helped create new laws and rules for oil and gas in Somalia. She also supported efforts to help people in that country. Under her guidance, Kuwait Energy helped about 200 women start their own small businesses.

In 2007, Sara Akbar became a director-at-large for the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

In January 2018, she became the only woman on the Board of Trustees for a big project called Madinat al-Hareer, which is developing Silk City and Boubyan Island. She stopped being the CEO of Kuwait Energy in 2017.

Awards and Honors

Sara Akbar has received many important awards for her work:

• Global 500 Roll of Honour from the United Nations Environment Programme in 1993.
• Distinguished Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers in 2003.
• Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers in 2013.
• Ranked 46th on "The Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Businesswomen" list by Forbes magazine.

Supporting Women's Rights

Sara Akbar often talks about the role of women in the workplace, especially in Middle Eastern countries. She explains that different countries have different levels of progress for women's rights.

She believes that Kuwait is very good when it comes to women's rights in education, business, and work. However, she also says that Kuwait still needs to improve political rights for women. She strongly believes in the "power of women" to fight for what they deserve and to win. She thinks the women's rights movement in Kuwait is very strong.

Sara Akbar does not believe that Islam stops women from achieving things. Instead, she thinks that other social and cultural factors are what truly affect women's rights.

Her Personal Life

Sara Akbar says that her parents' support was a big reason for her success, and for the success of her brothers and sisters too. She is married and lives in Kuwait City with her husband and three children. She is a Shia Muslim.