Mekfoula Mint Brahim is a feminist and Women Human Rights Defender in Mauritania, fighting discrimination and speaking against religious extremism.
[1] Mekfoula was born in the late 1960s (she doesn't know her date of birth as her parents were illiterate) in Tawaz, a village in the Adrar region and has 3 sisters and 3 brothers.
[3] Mekfoula Mint Brahim is President of Pour une Mauritanie Verte et Démocratique (For a Green and Democratic Mauritania), a non-governmental organisation founded in 2009 which works with young people to protect and promote human rights and leads women empowerment projects in rural areas.
She has been using traditional and social media to speak out against discriminatory practices in Mauritania, including against women and members of the Haratin and Afro-Mauritanian communities, and against reprisals against human rights defenders.
A fatwa was issued against her and her friend and fellow human right activist Aminetou Mint El-Moctar in 2014 after they called for the death sentence of the blogger and political prisoner Mohamed Mkhaïtir to be quashed.