--- description: Biram Dah Abeid is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Aidan McQuade wrote about the activist. title: Biram Dah Abeid by Aidan McQuade: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte84ac019f3a719d2/6988c3438fd2ee91d0356a2c/time-100-2017-biram-dah-abeid.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Biram Dah Abeid by Aidan McQuade  Mauritania opposition politician, presidential candidate, and anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid speaks with an AFP journalist during an interview, on the last day of the national presidential election campaign, in Nouackchott, on June 19, 2014\. AFP PHOTO / SEYLLOU (Photo credit should read SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images) Mauritania opposition politician, presidential candidate, and anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid speaks with an AFP journalist during an interview, on the last day of the national presidential election campaign, in Nouackchott, on June 19, 2014\. AFP PHOTO / SEYLLOU (Photo credit should read SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images)Photograph by Seyllou—AFP/Getty Images Biram Dah Abeid was just 8 when he became aware of slavery in his home country of Mauritania. He saw a defenseless youth being beaten by a man—a common experience, his parents explained, for the thousands of Mauritanians still treated as chattels by their “masters.” Biram himself was of slave descent; his own grandmother was born into slavery. Biram promised that day that he would resist. And in 2008, he founded the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA-Mauritania). Alongside other Mauritanian anti­slavery organizations, such as SOS-Esclaves, IRA-Mauritania has sought to break the official silence that enables slavery to persist by using nonviolent tactics: reporting and publicizing cases, assisting victims and holding sit-ins and demonstrations. For this, Biram and his colleagues have been imprisoned on numerous occasions. But those instances, coupled with Biram’s pledges to run for President of Mauritania, have only drawn more international attention to Mauritanian slavery and bolstered Biram’s reputation. He is an inspiration to thousands who continue to resist slavery in Mauritania and beyond. _McQuade is the director of Anti-Slavery International_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736244/biram-dah-abeid/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736244/biram-dah-abeid/"},"headline":"Biram Dah Abeid","datePublished":"2017-04-19T17:43:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:25.396Z","description":"Biram Dah Abeid is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Aidan McQuade wrote about the activist.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736244/biram-dah-abeid/","keywords":["TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte84ac019f3a719d2/6988c3438fd2ee91d0356a2c/time-100-2017-biram-dah-abeid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte84ac019f3a719d2/6988c3438fd2ee91d0356a2c/time-100-2017-biram-dah-abeid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736244/biram-dah-abeid/","name":"Biram Dah Abeid"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736244/biram-dah-abeid/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736244/biram-dah-abeid/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```