Moroccan-born reporter Souad Mekhennet awarded by Simon Wiesenthal Center

Moroccan Washington Post reporter and writer Souad Mekhennet was awarded the International Leadership Award by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for her reporting on issues related to extremism, radicalization and terrorism, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

The Moroccan-born journalist will receive the award on January 14, 2020, at the Los Angeles Tolerance Museum, MAP wrote.

The journalist, who previously worked for the New York Times and the Herald Tribune, co-wrote «Eternal Nazi: from Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim» published in 2014.

Souad Mekhennet said she was «grateful» to the Simon Wiesenthal Center for the honor and recognition of her reporting and books. «I see this award as an additional responsibility to advance and deepen my reporting on people who hate other people», she told MAP.

The Moroccan has already won several awards for her research on Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria and Libya, but also as a writer inspired by her investigations on radicalization. Author of four books, including the international bestseller «I Was Told To Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad», she is also the first Muslim woman to receive the prestigious Daniel Pearl Award in 2017.