Ammar Abdulhamid

Ammar Abdulhamid (Arabic عمار عبد الحميد) (born May 30, 1966) is a Syrian-born human rights activist, dissident, and founder of the Tharwa Foundation.

Career

Early life

Abdulhamid was born on May 30, 1966, to Syrian actress Muna Wassef and the late Syrian filmmaker Muhammad Shahin in Damascus, Syria.

He spent approximately eight years in the United States(1986–1994), studyingAstronomy and History. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in History. He returned to Damascus in September 1994.

He married author, fashion designer, and human-rights activist Khawla Yusuf.

Foreign policy

Abdulhamid was a visiting fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution 2004-2006.^[1][2]

Adbulhamid and Yusuf fled from Damascus in September 2005. They currently live in Washington, D.C.,with their two children Oula (1986) and Mouhanad (1990), awaiting political asylum in the United States.^[2]

Currently, Abdulhamid is a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy and member of its Syria Working Group.^[3]

Abdulhamid was the first Syrian to ever testify in front of American Congress 2006/2008 against crimes of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and briefed Presidents of the United States among other World Leaders. ^[4]

Foundations

Abdulhamid and Yusuf have founded several politically oriented foundations:

• DarEmar: In 2003, they established DarEmar, a publishing house and non-governmental organization dedicated to raising the standards of civic awareness in the Arab World.^[5]
• Tharwa Foundation: In 2003, they founded the Tharwa Project while still residing in Syria. After relocating to the U.S. in 2005, they founded the Tharwa Foundation as an offshoot. The foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots political organization that encourages diversity, development, and democracy in Syria and across Southwest Asia and North Africa. (The foundation's name comes from the Arabic word tharwa or "wealth" while playing on thawra or "revolution.") The foundation works to break the information blockade imposed by the government of Bashar Al-Assad with a cadre of local activists and citizen journalists to report on socio-political issues in Syria.^[6]
• Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance (HAMSA): In 2008, Abdulhamid co-founded Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance (HAMSA), an initiative to mobilize international grassroots support for democracy activists in the Arab world.^[7]

References

External links