I am a Syrian writer, activist, and human-rights advocate from Aleppo.

My public work includes co-founding and chairing Don't Suffocate the Truth, a survivor-centered campaign combating denial of chemical-weapons attacks in Syria; consulting on the impact campaign for the Oscar-nominated documentary *For Sama*; and serving as executive director of Kesh Malek, where I led education and civic-engagement programs in northern Syria.

I hold an MFA in Nonfiction Creative Writing from Columbia University, where I received a UWP Teaching Fellowship and a full scholarship, and an MA in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity from the University of Essex as a Chevening Scholar. In 2025, the University of Essex awarded me an honorary doctorate for my contributions to human-rights advocacy and accountability work in Syria.

My essays and commentary on Syria, activism, and justice have appeared in *Al-Jumhuriya*, *New Lines Magazine*, *ADI Magazine*, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, *Global Voices*, *Syria Untold*, and the Institut Català Internacional per la Pau (ICIP). My blog, *Dispatches from Syria: Marcell Shehwaro on Life in Aleppo*, won the 2015 Online Journalism Award for Commentary.

My work has also appeared in *Radicalizing Her: Why Women Choose Violence* (Melville House, 2021), *Syria: Den tapte revolusjonen* (Melkeveien Forlag, 2019), *We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled* (HarperCollins, 2017), and *Burning Country* (Pluto Press, 2016).