Laiba Mubashar

Journalist, Researcher & Marketing Professional

I am a journalism senior at Northwestern University in Qatar, pursuing a minor in Strategic Communication and another in Media and Politics (in collaboration with Georgetown University). I like to report on human interest stories and am interested in exploring history, culture, and languages.

My most recent journalistic endeavor has been publishing my first documentary as part of a fellowship with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting based in Washington D.C. My documentary follows two survivors of acid attack violence in Pakistan as they navigate social barriers, medical challenges, and a long quest for justice to empower themselves against all odds.

In addition to social issues, I also enjoy writing about culture and lifestyle and have published several stories for Euronews while working at their headquarters in Lyon, France. I serve on the editorial board of my university publication, The Daily Q, where I have worked since my first year, and am Vice President of my university's Student Government. I am also passionate about service learning and development work and spent my summer working at a non-profit in Uganda. In my free time, I like to travel, read, meet new people, explore museums and historical sites, and try out different cuisines.

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Featured Published Work

Pulitzer Center • 23rd September 2023

Acid Attacks: A Social Epidemic in a Global Pandemic

Pakistan has built a reputation for being one of the deadliest countries for acid attacks. 1,485 reported cases of acid attacks were reported in Pakistan between 2007 and 2018.

Acid attacks are a form of gender-based violence, the victims of which are mostly female. The perpetrators are usually their husbands and other in-laws. Some of the reasons why women have been subjected to acid attacks include rejecting marriage proposals, giving birth to daughters instead of sons, not bringing enough do

Euronews.com • 22nd April 2023

Art and Resistance: Making murals to protest against Iran's crackdown

As the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement in Iran continues amid the fierce backlash from the government, Euronews Culture spoke to Ghazaleh Rastgar, a Persian multidisciplinary artist who's spreading her message around the globe painting murals in support of the revolution.

Half a year has passed since the murder of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the religious morality police in Iran, but the “Women, Life, Freedom” revolution still continues despite the Iranian government's severe crackdown.

Amidst

Euronews.com • 5th April 2023

Be Like Mike? Bidding starts for MJ's 1998 NBA Finals sneakers

Nostalgia and celebrity sportwear make a compelling mix for collectors. Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals sneakers are all set to become the most expensive shoes ever to be sold at an auction.

Get ready sneakerheads and basketball fans alike, an iconic pair of sneakers worn by Michael Jordan himself are currently up for auction and are set to break an all-time record!

Sotheby’s is selling the Nike sneakers, which MJ wore during Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals - his final season with the Chicago B

Euronews.com • 22nd April 2023

A final word for Anne Perry: The crime writer who committed murder

The late writer sold more than 26 million copies, was featured alongside Agatha Christie in The Times's list of 100 "masters of crime", and had a Peter Jackson-directed biographical murder film made on her teenaged life.

In case you missed it earlier this month, Anne Perry, who died in Los Angeles at the age of 84, was a writer with an incredible story of her own.

The London-born bestselling author of more than 120 historical crime fiction books also served a five-year person sentence for murd

Euronews.com • 3rd April 2023

The ancient ritual of rain-making across different cultures

While some cultures dance to invoke rain, others revere special figures. The practice of rain-making rituals and prayers goes back centuries and can be found in many different cultures and religions around the world.

A week ago, 250 farmers in a small village in drought-stricken Spain gathered together in a special Mass to pray for rainfall.

Three years of low rainfall and high temperatures have plunged the Western European country into a long-term drought which is now threatening drinking wat

Euronews.com • 22nd March 2023

What killed Beethoven? New research finds cause of composer's death

New research published in the journal Current Biology uses DNA sequencing to uncover that the great composer did not die from lead poisoning after all...

In 1802, at the age of just 32, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers requesting that a post-mortem autopsy be performed on him to find the cause of his malady – his increasing deafness.

By the time the German musical genius passed away at age 56 in 1827, he was completely deaf and suffered from liver cirrhosis amongst other chr

Euronews.com • 20th March 2023

Mo Māori, no problem: Oxford English Dictionary includes Māori words

The oldest Māori word in this new update is 'whenua' meaning ‘land or piece of land belonging to a Māori person or native land of a Māori group.’

The Oxford English Dictionary, recognised worldwide as the principal English language dictionary and home to 600,000 words anthologised over 1000 years, has published the first of its four updates for 2023.

This month's update includes more than 1400 revised entries and the addition of 700 new words such as ‘deepfake’, ("a video of a person that has

2nd December 2021

Special education for children in Qatar: challenges and limitations

This article reports on the challenges faced by parents who are raising children with special needs in Qatar. From the high cost of education to the lack of information on available resources, this article navigates how parents of children with special needs face structural hindrances.

Euronews.com • 6th March 2023

Which countries in Europe have the highest and lowest childcare costs?

In the UK families could spend a whopping 75% of their monthly income on childcare, which discourages women from going back to work.

Sarah Ronan once had to resign from a job because she couldn't afford childcare.

Far from being a rare example, it's a story that's all-too-familiar in the UK, which has some of the highest childcare costs in Europe, and where women are actively discouraged from going back into the workplace after starting a family, because of the expenses involved.

“Like many p

The Daily Q • 12th February 2022

From Syria to London: Hassan Akkad’s visual storytelling journey

This article features Hassan Akkad, a Syrian award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, and refugee-rights activist currently based in London. From challenging Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria to influencing Boris Johnson's decisions in the U.K., Akkad shared his incredible journey of using film as a means of activism in a community-wide discussion at Northwestern University in Qatar.

Work Experience

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an American news organization that sponsors independent reporting on global issues that other media outlets are less willing or able to undertake on their own. I was one of their Crisis Reporting Fellows for 2022.

Fox Sports is the sports broadcasting division of the Fox Corporation. I was a production assistant in the Fox Sports team that covered the 2022 Men's World Cup in Qatar.

Euronews is Europe's leading international multilingual news channel providing international news with a pan-European lens. I pursued a three-month-long internship at their office in Lyon, France where I was reporting and producing content for their culture desk.

The Foundation for Sustainable Development is a non-profit based in Uganda which works on community-driven developmental initiatives. I spent Summer 2023 working at FSD in Jinja, Uganda as a project planner, developing and executing a sustainable water access plan for a farming community in Lukolo, Uganda.

The Centrum Media is Pakistan's first all-digital, independent news network. TCM's reporting focuses on untold, under-reported stories that mainstream media in Pakistan often overlooks and presents in a digital format loved by audiences.

The Daily Q is an online media outlet run by students from NU-Q and is the only publication in Education City, Doha. It produces written and multimedia stories on issues such as university policy changes and student achievements etc.