Author Guide · Journalism & Cultural History
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In August 2019 Zahra Hankir sat on the PBS NewsHour set beside Hannah Allam to talk about a book in which neither of them was the main voice. Our Women on the Ground, which Hankir edited, gave the page to nineteen Arab women journalists reporting on their own region. Hankir, a Lebanese-British journalist born in the UK during Lebanon’s civil war, studied politics at the American University of Beirut and Middle Eastern studies at Manchester, and covered markets for Bloomberg News in Dubai during the Arab Spring. Four years later she published a book of her own, a global history of eyeliner. This guide covers her two key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2019–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Zahra Hankir has published two books: Our Women on the Ground (2019), an anthology she edited of essays by Arab women journalists, with a foreword by Christiane Amanpour, and Eyeliner: A Cultural History (2023), which she wrote herself and which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Start with Our Women on the Ground; then read Eyeliner to see her reporting turned on a single everyday object.
Where to Start with Zahra Hankir
If you want the book that made her name
→ Our Women on the Ground (2019) — nineteen Arab women reporting on their own region.
If you want her own writing, start to finish
→ Eyeliner (2023) — eyeliner from ancient Egypt to Amy Winehouse.
If you want to read about war reporting
→ Our Women on the Ground (2019) — Syria, Yemen, Egypt and more, from the inside.
2 Zahra Hankir Books, in Order
Our Women on the Ground
Published by Penguin Books on 6 August 2019, with a foreword by Christiane Amanpour, the anthology collects essays by nineteen Arab women journalists on what it is like to report on wars, revolutions and their aftermath in their own countries. Contributors include the Yemeni photojournalist Amira Al-Sharif, the Egyptian photojournalist Eman Helal, Jane Arraf and Hannah Allam. Hankir wrote the introduction and shaped the collection; it was reviewed favourably by The New York Times and NPR and won the Susan Koppelman Award for a feminist studies anthology.
Eyeliner
Published by Penguin Books on 14 November 2023, this is a history of eyeliner from ancient times to the present, built from archives and from Hankir’s own reporting: nomads in Chad, geishas in Japan, dancers in India, drag queens in New York. It follows the cosmetic as religious devotion, protection against the evil eye and the sun, courtship, performance and protest, from Nefertiti to Amy Winehouse, with particular attention to communities of colour. It was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal.
In What Order to Read Zahra Hankir
The two books stand alone, so you can read them in either order. Publication order shows how her work developed: Our Women on the Ground is an editor’s book, giving the space to other journalists, and Eyeliner is her own reporting and voice from start to finish.
If you are more interested in beauty, culture and history than in conflict reporting, start with Eyeliner; it needs no knowledge of the anthology.
A reading path
1. Our Women on the Ground (2019)
2. Eyeliner: A Cultural History (2023)
The years · 2011–2023
Quick facts about Zahra Fatima Hankir
- Known for
- Giving Arab women journalists their own platform in Our Women on the Ground, and a global cultural history of eyeliner
- 2011
- Bloomberg News in Dubai during the Arab Spring
- 2020
- Speaks at Adelaide Writers’ Week
- 2023
- Eyeliner
- Born
- In the UK, during Lebanon’s civil war
- Nationality
- Lebanese-British
- Education
- Politics, American University of Beirut; Middle Eastern studies, University of Manchester; Columbia Journalism School (Jack R. Howard Fellowship)
- Worked
- Bloomberg News in Dubai during the Arab Spring; since then a freelance writer on Middle Eastern culture and politics
- Lived
- Sidon, Beirut, Dubai, Manchester, London and New York; now Brooklyn
- Honours
- Susan Koppelman Award for Our Women on the Ground
The red mark is 2019: Our Women on the Ground, the anthology of Arab women journalists she edited.
How Zahra Hankir Writes: Making Room for Other Voices
Hankir’s first book is built on stepping back. For Our Women on the Ground she asked each contributor to write about whatever experience mattered most to them; as she told NPR in 2019, “I wanted them to speak to their own truth.” The result is not a survey of the region but nineteen first-person accounts by women who report on their own countries, often while carrying two identities at once, as Hankir says she does herself.
Eyeliner applies a reporter’s method to cultural history. Rather than writing only from archives, she travelled and interviewed people who wear the cosmetic for very different reasons, from nomads in Chad to drag performers in New York, and mixes that reporting with anthropology, travel writing and memoir. One small object becomes a way into religion, gender, colonialism and protest.
What links the two books is attention to women’s lives that the wider world tends to overlook or simplify, especially in the Middle East and among communities of colour. For writers who work in the same spirit, see Authors like Zahra Fatima Hankir.
Watch
Zahra Hankir on Our Women on the Ground
On C-SPAN’s Book TV in 2019, journalist Zahra Hankir talks about Our Women on the Ground and the challenges Arab and Middle Eastern women journalists face when reporting from their home countries. From the official C-SPAN’s Book TV channel.
Frequently asked questions about Zahra Hankir’s books
How many books has Zahra Hankir written?
Two have been published: Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World (2019), which she edited, and Eyeliner: A Cultural History (2023), which she wrote.
What are Zahra Hankir’s books in order?
Our Women on the Ground (2019), then Eyeliner: A Cultural History (2023).
Where should I start with Zahra Hankir?
Our Women on the Ground. It is the book that established her and introduces nineteen Arab women journalists at once. Start with Eyeliner instead if you are more interested in beauty, culture and history than in war reporting.
What is Zahra Hankir’s most famous book?
Our Women on the Ground (2019), the anthology with a foreword by Christiane Amanpour, which won the Susan Koppelman Award. Eyeliner (2023) reached a wider audience as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
Did Zahra Hankir write Our Women on the Ground?
She is the editor rather than one of the essayists. The book collects essays by nineteen Arab women journalists; Hankir wrote the introduction and shaped the collection, and Christiane Amanpour wrote the foreword.
What is Eyeliner: A Cultural History about?
A global history of eyeliner, from ancient Egypt to today, told through the people who wear it: nomads in Chad, geishas in Japan, dancers in India, drag queens in New York. It looks at eyeliner as devotion, protection, courtship, performance and protest. It was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
Who is Zahra Hankir?
A Lebanese-British journalist, born in the UK during Lebanon’s civil war. She studied at the American University of Beirut and the University of Manchester, attended Columbia Journalism School on a Jack R. Howard Fellowship, and reported for Bloomberg News in Dubai during the Arab Spring. Her writing has appeared in BBC News, Al Jazeera English and the Los Angeles Times. She lives in Brooklyn.
Is Zahra Hankir working on a new book?
A further anthology, Let It Be a Tale, gathering essays by Palestinian journalists, is listed as forthcoming. We could not confirm a publisher or publication date at the time of writing, so it is not yet included in the list on this page.
Why did Zahra Hankir write about eyeliner?
She wears it every day and sees it as part of her background. In a 2023 interview with PEN America she said: “To my mind, when I wear eyeliner, I’m adorning my face with my heritage.”
Footnotes
- Zahra Hankir — Wikipedia
- Zahra Hankir — Wilson Center
- Stories from Arab female reporters in Our Women on the Ground — NPR, 2019
- How Arab women are changing the face of journalism in the Middle East — PBS NewsHour, 2019
- Zahra Hankir: The PEN Ten Interview — PEN America, 2023
- Eyeliner: A Cultural History — Bookshop.org
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“To my mind, when I wear eyeliner, I’m adorning my face with my heritage.”
— Zahra Hankir, on Eyeliner, PEN America “The PEN Ten” interview (2023)
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