Zahra Hankir

Zahra Hankir (Arabic زهرة حنكير) is a Lebanese-British journalist and editor.[1]

Zahra Hankir
NationalityLebanese
OccupationJournalist and editor

Education

Hankir has lived between Lebanon and the United Kingdom and studied politics at the American University of Beirut and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester.[2] She won a Scripps Howard Fellowship to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.[3]

Career

Hankir worked for Bloomberg News in Dubai during the Arab Spring, covering the economy and markets.[4] She writes about culture in the Middle East and her journalism has been featured in news publications such as BBC News, VICE News, Al Jazeera English, Literary Hub, Roads & Kingdoms[5] and gal-dem,[6] as well as the Los Angeles Times.[7]

In March 2020 she appeared in a panel discussion at Adelaide Writers' Week, along with Omani novelist Johka Alharthi and Iranian-American journalist Azadeh Moaveni.[8]

Works

Her first book, Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World,[9] featuring a foreword by Christiane Amanpour, was published by Penguin Books on 6 August 2019 in the US[10] and by Harvill Secker on 8 August 2019 in the UK.[11] It was described by Dwight Garner of the New York Times as “A stirring, provocative and well-made new anthology . . . that rewrites the hoary rules of the foreign correspondent playbook, deactivating the old clichés”[12] and by NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson as a book that will appeal to “readers of all genders and backgrounds who want to broaden their understanding of the Arab world".[13]  

In an interview with VICE News, Hankir said without the reporting of the Arab world’s women journalists: “the story of the region and its many nuances would be incomplete”.[14]

Controversy

On September 9, 2020, Hankir announced that she was declining an invitation from the Women 20 (an official G20 engagement group) to moderate its annual summit, which was being hosted by Saudi Arabia. She expressed "solidarity with women's rights defenders in Saudi Arabia & beyond, including #LoujainAlhathloul, who remains in prison in the country." [15] The decision was met with criticism and verbal abuse from supporters of the Saudi regime. Sarah Leah Whitson, the former director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, referred to the criticism as "a government-orchestrated troll attack," not "backlash."[16]

References
  1. "Our Women on the Ground With Zahra Hankir". Stratfor. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  2. "Zahra Hankir | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  3. "Zahra Hankir". Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  4. Wally, Maxine (6 August 2019). "How Arab Women Journalists See Life in the Middle East". WWD. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  5. "Our Women on the Ground: 9780143133414 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  6. Sharmaine Lovegrove interview
  7. "Immigrants are reviving Paterson, N.J., from its difficult past". Los Angeles Times. 26 September 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  8. "The Challenge of Change: Women's lives in the Middle East". Adelaide Festival (Writers' Week). Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  9. Our women on the ground : essays by Arab women reporting from the Arab world. Hankir, Zahra,, Amanpour, Christiane,, Al-Ghoul, Asmaa, 1982-, Karam, Zeina,, Khalaf, Roula,, Malas, Nour. New York, New York. 2019. ISBN 9780143133414. OCLC 1065947977.CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. "Our Women on the Ground: 9780143133414 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  11. Hankir, Zahra. "Our Women on the Ground". www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  12. Garner, Dwight (29 July 2019). "Women Rewriting the Rules of Reporting in the Arab World". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  13. "'Our Women On The Ground' Unites Stories From Female Journalists In The Arab World". NPR.org. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  14. Ettachfini, Leila (8 August 2019). "When the Conflict Zone You're Reporting on Is Home". Vice. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  15. Arab, The New (9 September 2020). "Journalist Zahra Hankir Refuses to Participate in Saudi Conference". The New Arab. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  16. Whitson, Sarah Leah (13 September 2020). "Saudi Troll Attack". Twitter. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
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