Souad Mekhennet is a national security correspondent for The Washington Post.

Born in Germany, Souad is the daughter of a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father. As a child she lived in Morocco, before her parents brought her back to Frankfurt. 

Souad has been reporting about radical Islamic movements since shortly after September 11. She is a visiting fellow at the Weatherhead Centre at Harvard University, the School for Advanced and International Studies (SAIS) at the John Hopkins University, the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and The New America Foundation.

Souad Mekhennet was selected as a 2014 Young Global Leader, at the World Economic Forum. In 2013 she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University where she researched the “long-term strategies of terrorist organizations since the Arab Spring,” Between 2004 and 2012, and before her Nieman fellowship, she worked as a reporter for The New York Times.

As a member of the investigative unit at The New York Times she covered warzones, terrorist attacks and the larger ‘war on terror.’ She also reported on deportations and human rights abuses.

Souad Mekhennet was one of two reporters who broke the story of Khaled el Masri’s extradition case and worked on a series called “Inside the Jihad” for which she and her colleagues interviewed members of Al Qaeda, Taliban, and ISIS all over the world. 

She currently works for the Washington Post and German TV channel ZDF.  She has been interviewed for various TV and radio shows in the US, the Middle East, and Europe.

Souad has taught and lectured at Harvard University, The City University of New York - School of Journalism, as well as at the University of Hamburg. She has also taught at schools and universities in Arab countries. Helping the next generation is one of her other passions,

Souad Mekhennet holds degrees in international relations, political science, sociology, psychology and history from the University of Frankfurt in Germany. She also attended the Henri-Nannen school of journalism in Hamburg and took classes at the City University of New York - School of Journalism.

Souad was honored with the Daniel Pearl award in 2017 by the Chicago Journalists Association. In 2018, she was honored with the Ludwig Börne Prize for Journalism. She was also awarded with a special Nannen Prize by Stern Magazine, honoring Souad Mekhennet for her reporting on terrorism as an extraordinary journalistic achievement.