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Zahra Hankir

    Professional affiliation

    Journalist & Author, Lebanon

    Full Biography

    Zahra Hankir is a Lebanese journalist who writes about the cultures and communities of the Middle East. Her work has appeared in Conde Nast Traveller, The Rumpus, Times Literary Supplement, McSweeney’s, Guernica Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of BooksLos Angeles Times, ViceBBC News, Al Jazeera EnglishBusinessweekRoads & Kingdoms, and Literary Hub, among other publications. She was awarded a Jack R. Howard Fellowship in International Journalism to attend the Columbia Journalism School and holds degrees in politics and Middle Eastern studies from the American University of Beirut and the University of Manchester, respectively. Her first book, Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World, was awarded the Susan Koppelman Award for the best anthology in feminist studies. She was a finalist for the 2022 Popular Features award at One World Media and the 2022 Best Coverage of the MENA Region award at the Arab and Middle East Journalists Association and has had stints at BBC News in London and at the New York Times Syndicate in Manhattan. Hankir was born in the United Kingdom during Lebanon’s civil war, and has lived in Sidon, Beirut, Dubai, New York, Manchester and London. She is based in Brooklyn and regularly travels to the Middle East.

    Her next book, EYELINER: A CULTURAL HISTORY, will combine social commentary and on-the-ground reporting to trace the impact of eyeliner on conceptions of beauty, power, and gender throughout the past three millennia—from Nefertiti to Amy Winehouse—with a particular focus on non-Western cultures. It will be published by Penguin Books in 2023.