BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1985 in Beirut amid the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), to a Lebanese father and a French mother, Caroline Hayek began her career as a freelance journalist before joining the editorial staff of L’Orient-Le Jour, Lebanon’s leading independent French-language daily, in 2014.

For six years, she reported on the war in Syria from Beirut, until the eruption of the Lebanese popular uprising in October 2019. Her reporting vividly documented the disintegration of the Lebanese state, the collapse of the financial system, the despair of an entire population, and the immense tragedy of the August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion that devastated her hometown.

In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Albert Londres Prize for her series of reports on the aftermath of this catastrophe.

Since October 7, 2023, Caroline Hayek has covered the war between Israel and Hezbollah. She also travels regularly to Syria following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.

INTENTION

Since 2023, and even well before that, since 2019, Lebanon has lurched from one crisis to the next. As a local journalist, Caroline Hayek finds herself doubly immersed in this storm: she must remain steadfast in her personal life while bearing witness, as closely as possible, to the convulsions of a small nation overwhelmed by countless afflictions. There is no pause. No respite. The unrelenting news cycle never grants her the luxury of stepping back from the turmoil.

The 2026 war has left bodies exhausted and minds radicalized. She is no exception.

For a long time, the idea of writing remained buried deep within her, postponed by a chronic lack of time and by the fear of embarking on a project whose contours she could not yet fully discern.

What she does know, however, is that many women and men have entrusted her with their stories, stories she has not always been able to commit to paper, for various reasons. Whether in Syria or in Lebanon, there are narratives that deserve to be told, far beyond the constraints of a few lines in a newspaper article.