Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel - Saudi Arabian Princess, Family and Facts

Princess Ameerah al-Taweel was born on November 6, 1983 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Aidan bin Nayef Al-Taweel Al-Otaibi, a member of the house of Saud. Her mother, following her divorce from her father, had to fight for her custody and raised her at her grandparents’ place in Riyadh.

She attended University of New Haven in Connecticut, US, from where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Business Administration.

In the 1980s, in order to give back to the society following the Islamic tradition of Zakat, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal started providing humanitarian aid to people devoid of basic necessities. However, the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation was founded much later in 2009 by Princess Ameerah al-Taweel and her husband, and was recognized by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

She became the Vice President of the charitable and philanthropic organization, which aimed to alleviate sufferings of common people, improve global cultural understanding, felicitate women’s empowerment, and provide natural disaster relief to nearby Arab countries. Promoting better understanding between the Islamic World and the West, the foundation has established centers for study at Harvard University, Georgetown University, University of Edinburgh, American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo.

She formally opened the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge in the presence of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2011. At the opening ceremony, Prince Philip presented her with an 800th Anniversary Medal for Outstanding Philanthropy.

In 2011, she inaugurated the Alwaleed Bin Talal Village Orphanage in Burkina Faso, which has been in development since her husband’s first visit to the country in 2006. She also travelled to Pakistan to aid flood victims and support education and led a relief mission to Somalia.

In 2015, the three philanthropic institutions of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation — one in Saudi Arabia, one in Lebanon and one global — were unified to form Alwaleed Philanthropies, which had a broader scope of work. The organization currently works both at a local and an international level to promote tolerance, acceptance, equality and opportunity for all, with special focus on developing communities and empowering women.

In 2010, Princess Ameerah al-Taweel joined the Board of Trustees at the Doha-based Silatech organization, which was founded by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in January 2008 to encourage youth employment in the Arab world. By 2012, the organization has created over 25,000 jobs in the Middle East.

At the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative, she discussed with former US President Bill Clinton her approach to social reform in a special session titled ‘Voices for Change in the Middle East & North Africa’. She is an honorary member of the Disabled Children's Association and an honorary board member of the Saudi Volunteering Society.

In January 2013, she founded the holding company, Time Entertainment, with the goal of reviving the media and entertainment industry to produce engaging content for Arab youth while providing employment at the same time. She is also the chairwoman and co-founder of Tasamy Social Initiatives Center, which is helping Arab youths to create sustainable small businesses since March 2012.

Princess Ameerah al-Taweel considers herself a part of a three-decade long movement to acquire women's rights, and admits that the task is not an easy one. The fight is not against merely government policies, but against "a mindset, a culture, a religion".

After being involved in the Alwaleed bin Talal Foundation, she started campaigning for civil rights for women, including their right to retain custody of their children after a divorce. This issue is very close to her heart as she witnessed her own mother suffering the agony of being separated from her children.

Another issue she fights for is the right for women to drive cars on the streets of her country, and hopes to be one of the first women to drive on Saudi roads. She acknowledges that acquiring the right to drive is symbolic of the more important issues like civil rights, education, opportunities in jobs and politics.

On behalf of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel received the ITP Special ‘Humanitarian Award’ at the ‘Arabian Business Achievement Ceremony Awards’ in 2011.

In 2012, she ranked fourth in CEO Middle East’s list of ‘100 Most Powerful Arab Women’ and also received the ‘Woman Personality of the Year Award’ from the Middle East Excellence Award Institute.

Princess Ameerah al-Taweel, at the age of 18, had managed to secure a 10-minute interview with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for a school paper, which eventually turned into a two-hour long conversation. Despite their 28-year age gap, they fell in love soon and got married nine months later.

Her husband is a liberal person who even mentored her activism, involving her in his charitable Al-Waleed bin Talal Foundation as the Vice President. However, she has faced backlash from many people and organizations with a conservative mindset, including threats, but thinks that her cause is too big to stop due to negativity.

After she started to work as a philanthropist and an activist, Prince Talal was threatened by his brother Prince Khalid that unless he controls her media appearances, they would be punished without prior warning. While some believe this led to their eventual divorce in November 2013, they remain close and often work together in their humanitarian endeavors.

Instead of being deterred, she continued her work even after the divorce, and eventually appeared on many international publications like NBC's 'Today', CNN International, NPR, Bloomberg, 'Time' magazine, and 'Foreign Policy' magazine. She was interviewed by Piers Morgan and has been featured on articles in 'Newsweek', 'The Daily Beast', and 'The Huffington Post'.

Princess Ameerah al-Taweel does not wear the traditional abaya, or veil, in most of her appearances. A media person, she also thinks that social media provides a free platform for women to enjoy an equal opportunity to express themselves.