Souad Mekhennet auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse 2017

Souad Mekhennet (born 1978 in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...

) is a German journalist and author who has written or worked for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'',

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

and German television channel ZDF.

Early life and education

Mekhennet was born in 1978, the daughter of a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father; she grew up principally in Germany, but spent some years of her childhood in Morocco. She attended the Henri Nannen School for Journalism in Hamburg and the

Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the weal ...

in Frankfurt.

Career

Journalism

Since 9/11, Mekhennet has covered conflicts and terrorist attacks in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. She was one of two ''Times'' reporters who published the first story on Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen, who was detained, flown to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

, interrogated and allegedly tortured by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

for several months. She also worked on the series ''Inside the Jihad,'' published between 2007 and 2008, in which she and her colleague

Michael Moss Michael Moss is an American journalist and author. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2010, and was a finalist for the prize in 2006 and 1999. He is also the recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for Large Newspapers and ...

interviewed various

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

leaders, including the head of

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to ...

. In February 2015, she was the lead reporter of a ''Washington Post'' story that first revealed the true identity of the

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic language, Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician language, Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughou ...

militant known as "

Jihadi John Mohammed Emwazi (born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri; ar, محمد جاسم عبد الكريم عليان الظفيري; 17 August 1988 – 12 November 2015) was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin believed to be the pers ...

Fellowships

Mekhennet currently holds fellowships with the

Weatherhead Center for International Affairs A weatherhead, also called a weathercap, service head, service entrance cap, or gooseneck (slang) is a weatherproof service drop entry point where overhead power or telephone wires enter a building, or where wires transition between overhead ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, the

School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

, the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and New America. She is the 13th Recipient of the

Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award The Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award is given annually to honor individuals who have dedicated their lives to public service. It was established in 2000 by the Prague Society for International Cooperation and thGlobal Panel Foundation It i ...

jointly with conservationist Tony Fitzjohn presented annually by the Prague Society for International Cooperation an
Global Panel Foundation
She is a European Young Leader (EYL40) alumni.

Books

She is the co-author of two books in German: ''Islam'' (2006) and ''Die Kinder des Dschihad: Die neue Generation des islamistischen Terrors'' (2008); and one in English, with Nicholas Kulish: ''The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim'' (2014). Her memoir, ''I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad,'' was published in 2017.

Books

* Mekhennet, Souad and Michael Hanfeld. ''Islam.'' Würzburg: Arena (2006) * Mekhennet, Souad, , and Claudia Satter. ''Die Kinder des Dschihad: Die neue Generation des islamistischen Terrors.'' Munich: Piper Taschenbuch (2008), * Mekhennet, Souad and Nicholas Kulish. ''The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim.'' New York:

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase o ...

(2014), * Mekhennet, Souad. ''I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad.'' New York:

Henry Holt and Co. Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt (publisher), Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company p ...

(2017)

References

External links

* * 1978 births German journalists German non-fiction writers German people of Moroccan descent German people of Turkish descent Goethe University Frankfurt alumni Living people The New York Times writers The Washington Post journalists {{Germany-writer-stub German Muslims German women journalists