Zahra Hankir

Hankir 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]

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] gal-dem,[6] and elsewhere.

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.[7]

Her first book, Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World,[8] featuring a foreword by Christiane Amanpour, was published by Penguin Books on 6 August 2019 in the US.[9] 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"[10] 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".[11]  

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".[12]

Her second book will be on the history of eyeliner. It will be published in 2023 by Penguin.