Melanie Swan

Dubai based newspaper journalist with over 18 years of experience in both the UK and UAE. I write on areas including health, academic research and education, travel and tourism, environment and lifestyle.

Dubai based news and features writer with over 18 years' experience in both the UK and UAE, writing on areas including health and wellbeing, travel and tourism, education and lifestyle. Offering services including PR and media relations, copywriting and editing.

Internationally Published News And Features Articles

The Times •

Qatari feminist Noof al-Maadeed ‘locked up in psychiatric hospital’

A Qatari women’s rights activist is allegedly being held in a psychiatric hospital against her will, a family member claims, raising fears over her safety. Noof al-Maadeed, 23, fled to Britain in 2019 after years of domestic violence, documenting her escape from Qatar on social media. She returned on October 13, with her silence on social media raising fears the activist had either been detained or killed.
The Times •

Afghan refugees in UAE ask: ‘Who will be left to rebuild our country?’

Nasreen Aziz was 12 when the Taliban first took hold of Afghanistan. While she was educated at home, music gave her solace — as it does now. Dancing to the Arabic, Persian and Hindi tunes being played on her phone gives her a brief window of joy in the small room that she shares with her niece and two other single women in Abu Dhabi’s Humanitarian City, where 10,000 Afghan evacuees are waiting in transit.
The Times •

Mental crisis waits for Afghan children who know too much

There’s an air of maturity far beyond her years about Afri. As her mother weeps for the hopes and dreams she left behind in Kabul, the five-year-old tells her not to cry, gently pulling the hair from her eyes. It has been three days since they landed in Doha from Kabul and here, in a four-bedroom villa where they will live until their next move, the pair often talk of home. Afri’s mother, Lima, cries frequently.
The National •

What it's like to travel to Tbilisi now: 'Georgian people have a strong spirit'

In July, Tbilisi’s old town is full of life. Buskers bring joy to passers-by; the long summer days mean locals meander the streets late into the evening; and families and friends gather for picnics in the city’s green spaces, or sit and chat on bench-lined pavements. But look a little closer and it is impossible to ignore the havoc the pandemic has wrought on Georgia's tourism industry, which accounts for 20 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
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