Dalia Mortada

Dalia Mortada is a Syrian-American journalist based in Istanbul, Turkey since 2011. She reports for print, online and audio outlets and for the past year has focused on her special project, Savoring Syria. Savoring Syria tells intimate stories of Syria and Syrians through the lens of food, following the Syrian diaspora throughout the Middle East, Europe and North America. The project also offers recipes and interactive opportunities for people to actually engage with Syrians and their culture, serving as a bridge for audiences between the stories they read and listen to and their own personal experiences.

Highlights

Reporting

| Nicole Tung, Dalia Mortada

In the Kingdom of Men Women in Turkey endure a culture of violence.

Video taken moments after Handan Askin was shot is shaky, but the scene is clear: Ms. Askin is sprawled out on her back on the cobblestone street, her legs splayed. Her arms are bentupward at…
| Dalia Mortada

How Food Brought an Unlikely Group of Syrian Refugees Together

As I weaved through the alleys of Ritsona, a refugee camp set up on an abandoned Greek Air Force base on a mountain north of Athens, I let my nose guide me. The air was…
| Dalia Mortada

Can Stories About Food Upend Familiar Narratives of War?

  When it comes to conflict, culinary traditions and cultural passions are considered lighter fare – often ignored in coverage of war and the communities it displaces. But journalists Annia Ciezadalo and Dalia Mortada use…
| Dalia Mortada

Savoring Syria

Savoring Syria, a project dedicated to telling the stories of Syrians and Syria through the lens of food. Click here to view
| Dalia Mortada

The flavors that unite Syria

ISTANBUL – I was born in Atlanta and spent most of my life in Virginia, but growing up, when people asked where I was from, I’d always say Syria. My Syrian experience was in the…