Nabila Ramdani

Nabila Ramdani
Nabila Ramdani at the World Economic Forum
Born	Nabila Ramdani France
Occupation	Journalist
Website
http://www.nabilaramdani.com

Nabila Ramdani is a French freelance journalist of Algerian descent who specialises in Anglo-French issues, Islamic affairs, and the Arab World.

Education

Ramdani holds an MPhil in International History from the London School of Economics (LSE),^[1] and an MPhil in British and American History and Literature from Paris 7 University.

She has an agrégation in English and has held positions of Lectrice at the University of Oxford (Jesus and Oriel Colleges) and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and of teaching assistant at Paris Diderot.

Professional life

Ramdani began her career in journalism covering the 2007 French presidential elections for a number of UK newspapers, and working as a commentator for the BBC. She writes regular columns for The Guardian,^[2] the London Evening Standard,^[3] the New Statesman,^[4]The Independent^[5] and The Observer.^[6]

Ramdani has written features and news stories for a wide range of other British publications, including The Daily Telegraph,^[7] The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail,^[8] Mail on Sunday, The Express and The Sunday Times. Ramdani’s work has also appeared in Middle Eastern newspapers including The National,^[9] Gulf News, Daily News Egypt, and the Qatari corporate magazine Thinkand. She has contributed to the French publications Le Parisien, Marianne, L'Express and Le Figaro.

Broadcast media

Ramdani is a commentator for the BBC, BBC Arabic, Al Jazeera, Sky, Channel 4, ITV, CNN, PBS, CBS, Russia Today, and other international channels and radio stations. She has worked for French TV and radio stations such as France Télévisions (France 2, France 3 and France 5), Canal Plus, France Inter, Europe 1, RTL, BFM, among others.

In the UK, Ramdani participates in flagship current affairs programmes, including the BBC's Woman's Hour, Today, You and Yours, PM, Newsnight and Dateline London, BBC Arabic's Sabaat Ayyam (Seven Days), Sky News's Press Preview and Boulton & Co, and Al Jazeera's Inside Story.

Other work

Ramdani is a Fellow on the UN Alliance of Civilisations Programme^[10] and is a regular speaker at Wilton Park, the Doha Debates,^[11][12] Intelligence Squared and leading universities around the world.

She has worked with the League of Arab States, Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), German Marshall Fund (GMF), Open Society Institute (OSI), CEDAR Network,^[13] Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD),^[14] Franco-British Council, the Search for Common Ground think tank, and Institut des Cultures d’Islam (ICI).^[15] She is a consultant to the British Council, advising on projects like ‘Our Shared Europe’.

Awards

2012 Oct.: awarded the Global Thinkers Forum Award for Excellence in Innovation in a ceremony which took place in Amman, Jordan under the patronage of Queen Rania Al Abdullah.

2012: awarded the title Young Global Leader 2012 by the World Economic Forum.^[16] and she is a board member of the Franco-British Council.^[17]

2010: winner of the inaugural European Muslim Woman of Influence (EMWI) Award 2010.^[18]

Reporting

2011 Feb.: filed exclusive first-hand reports from inside Gaddafi’s Libya.^[19]

2011 Jul.: exposed secret meetings between former British prime minister Tony Blair and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.^[20]

2012 Feb.: uncovered compelling evidence of Syria’s ruling regime targeting journalists.^[21]

2012 May: filed first-hand reports about Egypt’s first free elections for centuries.^[22][23]

2012 Jun.10: produced one of the first verified reports highlighting the human face of the Houla Massacre in Syria.^[24]

Opinions

In December 2000, while a student in Paris, Ramdani launched the "Comité des usagères de la ligne A",^[25] a group calling for temporary sex segregation in public transport while safety issues, and especially violence against women, were resolved.

Ramdani has been a constant critic of racist attitudes, especially in France.^[26]

Ramdani has frequently expressed skepticism about women’s prospects following the Arab Spring.^[27]

2011 May: wrote an article critical of Syria’s first lady, after meeting her in Damascus.^[28]

On 18 January 2012, when questioned on the BBC programme Newsnight, Ramdani said the British government had "completely ignored the United Nations’ resolution 1973" aimed at "protecting civilian lives". Instead the misinterpretation of the resolution "resulted in Libyans dying on a daily basis".^[29]

In a piece published in The Guardian in July 2012, Ramdani argued that Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the French minister for women's rights, "has let down Muslim voters" and that Muslim women would prefer more concrete measures "from the building of mosques to simple reforms.".^[30]

In August 2013, an opinion piece in The Observer stated that Israel used "US-sourced white phosphorus shells...against Palestinians". An amendment suggested that these weapons were not chemical ones, but this amendment is disputed by US Intelligence which indeed classified white phosphorus as a chemical weapon .^{[31] [32]}

On 10 January 2015, Ramdani described the Paris Charlie Hebdo attacks on the BBC's Dateline London as "deeply disturbing". Ramdani said: "Muslims were very prompt to show their outrage and indeed support and solidarity for the victims". In a wider discussion about freedom of speech, Ramdani said: "You can’t print hateful vindictive cartoons and think they will have no consequence."^[33] Ramdani said on another BBC discussion programme "The best way to move on from such horror is not to incite more violence and to offend people but to move towards reconciliation". When it was incorrectly suggested Ramdani was linking the violence with the cartoons, Ramdani replied: "I am not saying that. Why are you putting words into my mouth?" ^[34]

References

External links

• Official website