Selected Clips

As you probably know by now, I am the author of the book Love Across Borders, which is available for purchase both online and in bookstores across the United States.

It has been listed as one of the Boston Globe’s “Best Books of 2023” and called “eye opening reading that ably blends the personal and universal,” by Kirkus Reviews.

I also read the audiobook, which you can download here.

Here are a few excerpts and selections:

Teen Vogue: Love Across Borders: How Couples Separated By Immigration Systems Stay Together

Teen Vogue ran an excerpt from one of my favorite stories—that of a young Honduran queer couple, who fled gang violence and homophobia only to be separated by the US immigration system. They wrote love letters to find each other again.

Snap Judgement: Photo Session

The podcast Snap Judgement adapted one of the chapters, following the story of a Palestinian couple in Lebanon, into a 20 minute podcast episode, that aired on Valentine’s Day. You can listen here.

Selected Articles:

Along with writing Love Across Borders, I am also writer and journalist who covers stories of the ways that conflict and migration shape the lives of people around the world. I have reported from Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq, covering the Israeli occupation, the Syrian civil war and exodus to Europe and the rise and fall of the Islamic State.

Since moving to London, I have turned my attention to the rise of the far right in Europe and the United States, investigating immigration systems, white supremacist ideology, and the ways that people are standing up to them. I am most interested in stories of love and healing in an unpredictable and unstable world, and available for print, audio and video assignments that tell these stories.

Here are a few of my favorite clips:

Love Stories:

Naturally, my favorite stories are always the love stories—I had the honor of penning a column at Hyphen Magazine looking at different Muslim love stories across Europe, and it was incredible to interview couples about how they got to be where they are today, and the lessons that they learned along the way. Here is a selection of my favorites:

Hyphen Online: “Relationships are like flowers; if you do not tend to them, they will die.”

I loved the story of this Kurdish couple, and how they fell in love and grew together from Kurdistan, to Turkey and finally, Ireland.

Hyphen Online: “Love is a school, and you have to keep learning”

Wafa and Benoit, from Paris, are the epitome of what it means to overcome obstacles in the name of love. Wafa, whose family is Tunisian, has had to stand up to her family’s racism to be with Benoit, who is from Haiti—together, they have created their own world, where their love is stronger than prejudice.

Features & Investigations:

Most of my journalistic work has been throughly reported features and investigations, looking into border regimes and humanitarian crises around the world. While I try to do this through tales of love and romance as much as I possibly can, sometimes it is all borders and no love.

Inkstick Media: The War In Gaza Is A Crisis Of Borders

Recently, I have been struck with how different the crisis in Gaza is compared to other humanitarian crises—unlike other crises, where refugees are encouraged to leave, many Palestinians feel that leaving Gaza will result in another Nakba. Here, I explored this phenomenon for Inkstick Media.

New Lines Magazine: Cracking Down On The Right To Love In Palestine

One of the things that struck me the most while I lived in Palestine was how much the occupation—it’s walls, permits, and humiliation tactics—affected different love stories. Here is a glimpse into what it is like to have to report your relationship to the Israeli authorities.

The Intercept: Attacks on Kurds in a Refugee Camp in Greece Raise Fears That Conflict In Syria Has Followed Refugees Abroad

This is one of the most challenging investigations I have ever worked on—in 2018, I traveled to Greece, with my partner, Salem Rizk, to investigate claims that ISIS sleeper cells were popping up in the refugee camps. This is what we found.

Personal Essays & Op-Eds:

I also frequently write personal essays an op-eds for a variety of publications, including but not limited to New Lines Magazine, The Daily Beast, CNN and many others. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Daily Beast: Biden’s “Illegals” Gaff Was Bad. His Immigration Policies Are Worse

Immediately following the 2024 State of the Union, I published this op-ed with The Daily Beast, examining Biden’s broken immigration policies.

CNN: What Is Really Causing The Crisis At The Border?

Shortly before the release of Love Across Borders, I authored a piece for CNN Opinion exploring the crisis at the US/Mexico border in the context of the history of passports and borders, asking why some people have more freedom to move than others.

Elle Magazine: Everything I Know About Love, I Learned Through Writing About Immigration

What does it mean to be patient when you have been separated from your loved one by borders—and you don’t know when you will see them again? In this piece, I wrote about how reporting on immigration has taught me how to be a better partner, and not take the people I love for granted.

New Lines Magazine: Earthquake Woes Reverberate in Berlin

Shortly after the earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria, I traveled to Berlin to interview the Turkish and Syrian diasporas about how we could heal from this terrible tragedy.

CNN: If Americans believe in freedom from lockdown, they should start here

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote about Jorge and Danilo—an LGBTQ couple from Cuba who was unjustly separated by ICE during the COVID-19 pandemic, forced not only to be apart from each other but worried about their health. I am happy to report that they have since been reunited.

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If you would like to get in touch to commission me, please do not hesitate to reach out over email.