Haifaa Awad

Haifaa Awad was born in Damascus in Syria. Her mother is Syrian and her father is Iraqi. Awad’s father fled from Saddam Hussein’s regime in the start of the 1990s, and she came to Denmark with her family on the 25^th of December 1993. The family settled in Hillerød, north of Copenhagen. From 2006-2013, Awad studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen, and she became a public figure in 2013 after writing stories about her work as a voluntary doctor at a field hospital in the northern part of Syria. Her diaries from Syria were published by the Danish newspaper Information, and were also published as a successful e-book.

In June 2015, Awad travelled to Syria again to work as a voluntary anaesthesiologist. She should have stayed for two weeks, but due to the war she had to go back to Denmark after a week. Her diaries were again published by Information.

Today, Haifaa Awad works as a doctor in Denmark and is a driven medical activist advocating for a free Syria.