Reza Aslan: An American Martyr in Persia

Daniel Hilton is Middle East Eye’s head of news. In April 2021, his reporting from the Libyan town of Tarhuna on civil war atrocities was recognised with an Amnesty International Media Award. He has also been shortlisted for the Prix Bayeux awards for war correspondents and journalist of the year at the Drum awards. Previously Hilton was based in Beirut, where he was region editor of Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper.

Kamila Shamsie was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. Her most recent novel, Home Fire, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018. It was also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, and won the London Hellenic Prize. She is the author of six previous novels including Burnt Shadows, shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and A God in Every Stone, shortlisted for the Women’s Bailey’s Prize and the Walter Scott Prize. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist in 2013. She is professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester and lives in London.

Laila Soueif is assistant professor of mathematics at Cairo University and a life-long advocate of human rights and academic freedom. She was one of the founders of the March 9 Movement for University Autonomy in Egypt, a group that was active in defending academic freedom and the independence of the university, and which played a role in paving the way to the 2011 revolution. She is part of a family of activists: her late husband, Ahmed Seif el-Islam, was a renowned human rights lawyer; her sister, Ahdaf Soueif, is an internationally celebrated political writer; and her children, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Mona Seif and Sanaa Seif are all dedicated human rights activists. Alaa has been imprisoned in Egypt for his writings and his activism for almost ten years.