Manar is a civil rights attorney and strategist of 20 years with expertise in technology and social media, free speech, immigration, national security, gender equity, and hate crimes. As an independent consultant, she supports various nonprofits organizations and philanthropic institutions on strategy development, policy analysis, campaign and program design, grantmaking, and research.
In her previous role, Manar served as Associate General Counsel on the Civil Rights Team at Meta., where she conducted company-wide civil rights reviews with a focus on enhancing protections for marginalized communities and ensuring that the company was moving towards equity on all its platforms. This work included policy, governance, and product analysis, including on the metaverse and AI. Manar launched the company’s inaugural civil rights training which has since been taken by over 50,000 employees and authored the company’s Progress Report on the Civil Right Audit. Prior to joining Meta, Manar was a Senior Legislative and Advocacy Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) where she worked at the intersection of issues impacting Arab, Black, Iranian, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities, including immigration, national security and counterterrorism, white supremacist violence, and hate crimes and bullying. During the Obama Administration, she served as the Deputy Policy Director for Immigration in the White House Domestic Policy Council where she assisted with the development of the President’s strategy for building a 21st century immigration system. She previously served as Policy Director at South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and she provided assistance to domestic violence survivors through civil and criminal systems at Legal Services of New York City and the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women respectively.
Manar received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and her B.A. from Wellesley College.
