Esty Shushan is the Founder and Executive Director of Nivcharot – Ultra- Orthodox (Haredi) Women for Voice and Equality. A long-time social activist, Esty has worked in films, advertising and media.
Esty founded Meoravut (Engagement), a forum that encouraged conversation and activism among Haredi women. Consequently, in 2012, she launched the social media-based protest movement No Voice, No Vote calling on Haredi women to vote only for parties that include women in their ranks. Her short film, Akara (Barren), released in 2014 and screened globally, focuses on how ultra-Orthodox society pressures women to bear children.
In 2015, Esty founded Nivcharot, promoting the voice and equal representation of Haredi women in politics and public life.
Esty is a sought-after speaker and lectures widely on issues pertaining to Haredi women and society, and media and cinema. In 2015, she told the story of Nivcharot in a TED talk in Jerusalem.
Esty grew up in Safed. The first of eleven children in a Haredi family, she studied at the Beit Yaakov Seminar in Bnei Brak. She is the mother of four children.
Esty is the recipient of the 2017 Yaari award and the 2019 Rapaport award for her breakthrough work promoting women. Nivcharot is the recipient of the 2019 Dror Prize for its’ Chair protest campaign.