Muzna Dureid

Policy Analyst, Humanitarian Practitioner, and award winner Muzna Dureid is a Syrian refugee who arrived in Montreal in November 2016. On her journey to Canada, she was involved actively in multiple initiatives and networks focusing on child and forced marriage issues among Syrian refugees since 2012 when the first wave of Syrian refugees fled to the neighboring countries by founding “Women Refugees, not Captives, a campaign” aiming to end forced and child marriages of Syrian women refugee and girls. Muzna holds a Master's degree in Public Policy and Public Administration at Concordia University. She works as Program Development Senior Officer at The White Helmets (the winner of an alternative Nobel prize for peace in 2016).

Muzna also advocates for the diaspora women's refugee political participation. She is a co-founder of the Syrian women's political movement to engage Syrian women in politics and peace talks and shape Syria's future. She is a consultant on WPS at Women, Peace, and Security Network – Canada. Dureid is the founder of the Indigenous – Refugees movement is a series of workshops for Youth on lessons learned between both groups which aim to build stronger bonds in Canada by learning the truth and resilience.She works as strategy and grant making consultant at Mariam Assefa Fund. 

She is a co-recipient of Canada first-ever research award on Women, Peace, and Security. The recipient of Canadian Excellence in global Women and Children’s Health award for the young category of 2019. The recipient of The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers annual award for outstanding Advocacy on behalf of the human rights of Refugees. Muzan is a member of Gender Innovation Agora (GIA) at UN WOMEN. 

She is a fellow of the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship at Edinburgh University and Laurate of Femmes d’Avenir en Méditerranée at Sciences Po University. A youth advisor at Women, Peace, and Security Research Network at McGil University.  

Considering her passion, knowledge, and first-hand experience in refugee girls and women's rights advocacy, Muzna demonstrated her continued commitment by joining the Refugee Advisory Network to build on her experience and emphasize and foster the voice of Syrian girls and women internally displaced and refugees in the global refugee policy agenda and discussions.

Muzna believes the RAN, as a collective work of a group of technocrat refugee leaders, paves the way to refugee representation, inclusion, and social justice, specifically youth refugee women's efforts in Canada and globally.