Nussaibah Younis | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 1986 Manchester, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Years active | 2012–present |
Nussaibah Younis (born August 1986) is an English writer, academic and former consultant and humanitarian worker known for her expertise on contemporary Iraq. Her debut novel Fundamentally (2025) was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction .
Younis was born in Manchester to an Iraqi father and a Pakistani mother and grew up in a Muslim household in Manchester and Leeds. The 2003 invasion of Iraq had a "huge impact" on her family. [1] She attributes her career and journey to her desire to help and learn more about her father's country. [2] [3] Younis attended Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, completing her A Levels in 2004. [4] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Modern History and English from Merton College, Oxford. During her time at Oxford, she became features editor of Cherwell . [5] She went on to complete a Master of Arts (MA) and a PhD in International Affairs at Durham University. [6] [7]
After completing her Durham PhD, Younis undertook a post-doctoral fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. [8] She then worked at the Atlantic Council as director of the Future of Iraq Task Force. As of 2018, she was a Senior Fellow and Advisor to the European Institute of Peace. She was also an Associate Fellow of Chatham House and a Visiting Fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations. [9] [10]
From 2019 to 2020, through a non-profit organisation, Younis was an adviser to the Iraqi government on and designer of deradicalisation programmes for women allegedly involved with the Islamic State. [2] It was here Younis became inspired to write her debut novel; she empathised with the teenage girls and saw her younger self in them. In an eight-way auction in February 2024, Weidenfeld & Nicolson won the rights to publish Younis' debut novel Fundamentally in a two-book deal. The U.S. publishing rights simultaneously went to Tiny Reparations. [11] Younis had turned down a non-fiction deal, as she felt a non-fiction book on the subject would only appeal to her colleagues and wanted her work to be enjoyable to a wider audience. [12] She sought to balance comedic elements with serious topics and to satirise international aid in the line of Evelyn Waugh's Scoop (1938) and the BBC Two sitcom W1A , [6] taking a comedy class to hone her skills. [1] Published in February 2025 and set in 2017, the novel follows academic Nadia Amin as she takes a job rehabilitating ISIS women amid turmoil in her personal life and meets Sara, a Londoner who ran away at age 15. [13] [14]
Fundamentally was shortlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction and the 'Published Novels' section of the 2025 Comedy Women in Print Prize. [15] Younis is in the process of adapting Fundamentally for television and writing her second novel. [1]
Younis lives in Highbury, North London. [4] She is no longer religious. [1]