Myriam Francois-Cerrah

Myriam Francois-Cerrah
Born Emilie François
1983 (age 31–32)
Alma mater Cambridge University (BA)
Georgetown University (MA)
Oxford University (PhD, exp.)
Occupation Actress, writer, journalist
Religion Islam

Myriam Francois-Cerrah (born Emilie François; 1983) is a Franco-British writer,[1] broadcaster and academic on issues related to Islam, France and the Middle East. She writes a monthly column for the New Statesman online and is also a regular contributor to Middle East Eye.

Career

Francois-Cerrah currently works as a freelance journalist, in both print and broadcast media. Her articles have been featured in The Guardian,[2] The Huffington Post,[3] New Statesman,[4] Your Middle East,[5] The London Paper, Jadaliyya,[6] ABC,[7] The Daily Telegraph,[8] Salon,[9] Index on Censorship,[10] the F-Word[11] and the magazine Emel.[12]

She is the presenter of a BBC documentary on the genocide at Srebrenica,[13] which aired on BBC 1 on Monday 6 July 2015.

She is a former correspondent for the Huffington Post (2014-2015), where she broke a headline story on an exclusive 36-page document written by alleged al-Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,.[14]

She has worked as a programme researcher at the BBC, and currently works as a freelance programme producer on Al Jazeera’s Head to Head (2013-).

She is former assistant editor and features writer at Emel magazine (2008–2009).

She is a regular guest on BBC Big Questions (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)[15] and Sunday Morning Live.

She has appeared on Newsnight (2009), 4thought.tv (2011),[16] BBC News (2010),[17] Crosstalk (2010), BBC Radio (2012), Sky News[18] and documentaries including Divine Women, presented by Bettany Hughes.[19] In 2012, she commented the French presidential elections for Sky News, as well as the French presidential inauguration and 2012 local elections and regularly comments on current affairs, in particular related to France or the Middle East. She has been a frequent guest on Tariq Ramadan's television show Islam & Life broadcast by Iran's PressTV.

Film

A former actress, her screen career began at age 12 in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995) in which she played Margaret Dashwood alongside Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet.[20][21] She went on to star in Paws (1997) alongside Nathan Cavaleri and Heath Ledger, and New Year's Day (2000), in which she played Heather.

Academia

She is currently a Research Associate at SOAS, in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East where her work focuses on issues related to British Muslims, integration and racism.

She previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), Georgetown University (2005-2007) in Washington DC. While undertaking her doctorate, Francois also works as an academic tutor in the Oxford University Department for Politics and International Relations, where she teaches Middle East politics.

She has guest lectured at universities including Harvard University (2014), Birmingham, (2014), Luther College (2015) and an annual guest lecture at Kingston University, UK (2012-2014). She is due to deliver a lecture as part of the 2015-16 Ebor Series at York St John University.

Education

Francois-Cerrah is studying for a PhD at Oxford University in Oriental Studies focused on Islamic political movements in Morocco.[22]

She has an MA with honours in Middle East politics from Georgetown University, and a BA from Cambridge University in Social and Political science.

Personal Life

In 2003, at 21 years old, Francois-Cerrah became a Muslim after graduating from Cambridge. At the time, she was a skeptical Roman Catholic. She rejects the use of the words "convert" or "revert" as "exclusionary", describing herself as "just Muslim".[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Myriam Francois-Cerrah". journalisted.com. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  2. ↑ Myriam Francois-Cerrah profile from The Guardian
  3. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (26 January 2012). "Why a War With Iran is the Real Threat". Huffington post. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (14 December 2011). "When does it not pay to be Muslim?". the New Statesman. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  5. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (29 April 2013). "Morsi must become a leader for all Egyptians". Your Middle East.from Your Middle East
  6. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (16 May 2015). "Olivier Roy on Laicite as Ideology, the Myth of 'National Identity' and Racism in the French Republic". Jadaliyya.
  7. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (27 April 2015). "Face Veils and Miniskirts: Whose Interests are Served in France's Republic of Men?". ABC.
  8. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (17 July 2014). "Why banning Sharia courts would harm British Muslim women". The Daily Telegraph.
  9. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (13 October 2014). "Bill Maher’s horrible excuse: Why his defense of Islamophobia just doesn’t make any sense". Salon.
  10. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (15 January 2011). "Tunisia: France’s faux pas". Index on Censorship. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  11. ↑ "Articles by Myriam Francois-Cerrah". The F-Word. 20 July 2009. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  12. ↑ "Sailing Towards The Divine | Feature Interviews | Features | June 2011 &#124". Emel. 27 June 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  13. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (6 July 2015). "A Deadly Warning: Srebrenica Revisited". BBC.
  14. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (14 January 2014). "Mastermind Of The Sept. 11 Attacks Wants To Convert His Captors". Huffington Post.
  15. ↑ "One Programmes – The Big Questions, Series 3, Episode 5". BBC. 31 January 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  16. ↑ "0258 Myriam Francois Cerrah Should Muslims adapt to Britain or should Britain adapt to Muslims?". 4thought.tv. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  17. ↑ "Impact Asia – A veiled threat or an attack on faith?". BBC News. 13 July 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  18. ↑ "Myriam Francois-Cerrah, French elections April 2012, Sky news" video on YouTube
  19. ↑ Divine Women on BBC
  20. ↑ Thompson, Emma (1995). "The Diaries". In Doran, Lindsay; Thompson, Emma. Sense and Sensibility: The Screenplay and Diaries. Bloomsbury. pp. 246–247. ISBN 1-55704-782-0.
  21. ↑ Howe, Desson (15 December 1995). "Uncommonly Good 'Sense'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 October 2013. (subscription required)
  22. ↑ "Student Research – Faculty of Oriental Studies". University of Oxford. 9 June 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  23. ↑ Francois-Cerrah, Myriam (15 June 2015). "Don’t call me a “convert”/”revert”".

External links

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