Marwa Olleik

Marwa Olleik is a feminist journalist and written and visual content creator from Lebanon who began her career in 2011while living in Beirut and studying Journalism at the Lebanese University. She is originally from Yohmor Al-Shaqif, a small village in Southern Lebanon, currently controlled by Hezbollah.

Olleik has extensive experience in writing, editing, and compiling news for local and pan-Arab platforms, mainly focusing her work on the human rights situation in the MENA region. Olleik’s professional interests include women’s rights, gender-based violence, and gender equality. She is a well-known and widely recognised journalist and changemaker in Lebanon and the region.

Between 2013 and 2015, Olleik worked as a freelance journalist for several local and regional independent news platforms. She worked as a full-time contributor for outlets, such as FutureTV, Al Araby TV, TRT TV, Syria TV, and Sharika Wa Laken/FEMALE Organization. During that time, she also received press training at National News Agency (NNA).

Due to her journalistic work and her views as an opponent of Hezbollah, other regional militias, and the Syrian regime, Olleik has faced threats, smear campaigns, and sanctions by local militias and Hezbollah-controlled authorities. She was also barred from completing her studies at the Lebanese University.  As a result of intensifying persecution, she fled to Turkey but continued her journalistic work from there.

After relocating to Istanbul, Olleik continued to work as a freelance journalist for several media outlet. There,she remained unsafe due to the repressive climate for free expression and the Turkish government’s crackdown on journalists.

In March 2024, Marwa Olleik arrived in Strasbourg, France, where she took up the two-year ICORN residency, becoming the city’s first ICORN resident.