Laila El-Haddad

Laila El-Haddad is an award-winning author, public speaker, and parent-of-three from Gaza City.

She is the author of Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything In Between and co-author of the critically acclaimed The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey.

Through her work as a journalist, documentarian and media activist, she provides rare insight into the human experience of the region.

From 2003-2007, El-Haddad was the Gaza correspondent for the Al Jazeera English website and a regular contributor to the BBC and the Guardian as well as radio correspondent for Pacifica’s Free Speech Radio News. During this time, she co-directed two Gaza-based documentaries for Tourist with a Typewriter Productions, including the award-winning film Tunnel Trade.

She has been published in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, The New Statesman, The Daily Star, Le monde diplomatique, and has appeared on CNN, NPR, and Al Jazeera. She was also featured in Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown Episode “Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza” as his guide in the Gaza Strip.

A graduate of Duke and Harvard, she currently makes her home in Columbia, Maryland with her husband Yassine Daoud, and their three children.