Ruby Hamad

Ruby Hamad is an Australian journalist, op-ed writer, and public speaker. She has written articles in The Sydney Morning Herald, , Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Life, Eureka Street, Crikey, The Guardian, and The Saturday Paper. Her public speaking includes giving the 2017 International Women's Day keynote speech and Feminist Intersection - In Conversation (with Celeste Liddle) for the Queen Victoria Women's Centre, and hosting panels at Melbourne Writers Festival and Newcastle Writers Festival.
Personal life
Hamad grew up in Sydney Australia as the second-youngest of seven children to Arab Muslim parents. She is of Lebanese and Syrian descent As a small child she was a tomboy who spent time with her younger brother playing on monkey bars, swimming in the pool, and taking part in backyard cricket.
Hamad describes her 20s and a good deal of her 30s as spent "flailing and floundering" about what she really wanted to do with her life and not being mentally and emotionally equipped to pursue career ambitions that would lead to early success. She spent several years living and working overseas and studying, seeking out in her 20s the freedoms of life experience she said she missed from having a strict upbringing. She has a master's degree in journalism and media practice from the University of Sydney, and teaches part-time in history and social sciences at the University of Western Sydney.
Early writings
Hamad describes her early writings as "focused primarily on overtly feminist issues including gender representation in popular culture, the treatment of women in the Arab world, and the virgin-whore dichotomy." where she states her passion is for pursuing social justice, including justice for the most vulnerable amongst us, non-human animals.
Hamad has been asked to critique the writing of other Arab and Muslim women, including Fighting Hislam by Susan Carland and Beyond Veiled Cliches: The Real Lives of Arab Women by Amal Awad. Also for SBS in this time period, Hamad created a series on the real people behind mental illness, including myth-busting that helped shape public opinion on the stigma of sufferers.
Books
* Defiant Daughters: 21 Women on Art, Activism, Animals, and The Sexual Politics of Meat. Edited by Kara Davis and Wendy Lee, with a foreword by Carol J. Adams. Published March 2013 by Lantern Books. (Chapter: Halal by Ruby Hamad)
Film
Ruby Hamad is a graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts, where she majored in film writing and directing. While living in Melbourne she worked on a feature film script.
Hamad is known for her work on Pure (2013), The Road Not Taken (2004) and A Short Portrait of Zora Zakowski (2003).

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