Myriam Francois was a Senior Fellow at the New Lines Institute. She also is a Franco-British freelance journalist, broadcaster, and writer with a focus on current affairs, Europe and the Middle East.
Former assistant editor of emel magazine, she writes regularly for the Middle East Eye and has had articles featured in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The New Statesman, Al Jazeera English, The Independent, The New Internationalist, Your Middle East, The Huffington Post, The London Paper, Index on Censorship and others. She also regularly contributes to public debates on Sky News, BBC Newsnight, BBC Big Questions, and Channel 4 news.
In 2003, following extensive research into the faith, Francois converted to Islam and is active as a spokesperson for Muslim understanding, appearing on BBC Big Questions (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) alongside Dame Ann Leslie, Beverly Knight, the Rev. Peter Owen-Jones and others. She also has contributed to discussions on Newsnight (2009), 4thought (2011), BBC News (2010), Crosstalk (2010) and in documentaries, including “The Life of Muhammad,” presented by Rageh Omar (2011).
Francois received her Master of Arts, with honors, in Middle East politics from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts from Cambridge University in social and political science. She is working on her Ph.D. in politics and international relations from Oxford University.
The children of ISIS supporters are first and foremost a vulnerable group in need of urgent assistance due to their location in a volatile and war-torn region. The urgency of the question of how to manage their cases cannot be overstated, given the current instability in the region and the ongoing threat posed by COVID-19.
