Ola Al-Fares

Ola Tahseen Al-Fares is a Jordanian-Palestinian journalist, television presenter and law graduate who became one of the youngest news presenters at Al Jazeera.

She was the only daughter among seven brothers in a conservative Jordanian family of Palestinian origin. Her grandfather, Abdul Raouf Al-Fares—may God have mercy on him—served in Jordan’s fourth parliament and represented the country in the Arab Union Council. Her father, Tahseen Al-Fares—may God have mercy on him—was a member of the ninth parliament, whose term was extended by royal decree to become the tenth. He died when she was thirteen, leaving her mother to raise the family. She completed secondary school at sixteen and graduated in law from Al-Ahliyya Amman University at nineteen.

At twelve, she imagined becoming a detective who could restore rights and defend the vulnerable. Her father’s death a year later altered the direction of that ambition. He had been a public figure devoted to helping others, and she began to see media work as a way to preserve his name and continue his humanitarian message.

Grief initially drove her into isolation. The image of the funeral remained vivid, particularly because she had defied convention and accompanied him to the cemetery. Paper and pen became an outlet: she wrote a eulogy in classical Arabic describing the burial and her feelings, then read it to her mother and brothers. Their response revealed the power of her writing and began a lasting relationship with the written word.

She wanted to study media, but the distance to the university and the family’s concern about a young woman appearing on television led her to law instead. She recognised a common purpose in law and journalism: both could defend people whose voices were unheard. While studying, she imitated broadcasters she admired, including Khadija Qena and Iman Bannoura, and held to the belief that she would eventually work in an influential public role.

At seventeen, a university colleague brought her a newspaper advertisement seeking women broadcasters. Her age led to an initial rejection, but she returned for camera, writing, language and general-knowledge tests and was accepted as the youngest correspondent for Al Arabiya in the Arab world. She continued reporting until graduation. During a visit to Dubai, she also entered a broadcaster audition despite the large field of candidates and an official’s warning that she was very young.

The decisive call came while she was walking through Amman. An Emirati number asked her to travel to Dubai immediately and present a bulletin the following day. She had never presented a news bulletin, and travelling alone required a long and difficult conversation with her immediate and extended family. She eventually secured their agreement and left at nineteen.

The next day, without an audition or prior broadcast preparation, she replaced a senior presenter on a main bulletin watched by millions. Having read the script dozens of times, she delivered it almost from memory and regarded the result as the finest performance of her early career. The appearance earned her the description ‘youngest news presenter’ and challenged the conventional image of an older news anchor. Strong viewing figures during her first week led the channel to appoint her full-time, although her inexperience with salary levels meant that she initially accepted pay below the demands of the role.

Professional life also placed her in a far more open social environment than the conservative community in which she had been raised. The differences created personal, emotional and professional difficulty, but she kept her objective in view and gradually found her place.

Soon after beginning as a news presenter, she proposed the idea for ‘MBC in a Week’ and was asked to prepare it, becoming the group’s youngest programme producer. At twenty-four, the Human Resources Director presented her with a promotion and a title created specifically to reflect her performance—an unprecedented recognition for someone of her age at the channel. Awards and honours followed across broadcasting and public influence.

From 2011, she became one of the most active Arab media figures on social platforms and the first woman journalist to reach one million followers on Twitter. The less formal voice she used online brought her closer to viewers and connected her television and digital audiences. Invitations to conferences and seminars allowed her to speak about social awareness and encourage young people to pursue their goals.

In 2017, a tweet about President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital triggered a campaign of accusation and abuse. She was suspended from work and subjected to an organised attack just as years of effort were bringing professional reward. Some people she had considered friends withdrew their support, and the experience forced her to rely on her own resilience.

The suspension was especially painful because her work at the time was a social programme devoted to human stories and to connecting people in need with charitable support. Every week had been organised around improving one person’s circumstances. She treated that record of service as a source of strength and refused to abandon the principle of free expression.

She decided to resign rather than apologise for an opinion she believed fell within her professional responsibility. The channel declined several resignation requests and offered substantial incentives for her return while she was on paid leave in the United States. She nevertheless closed that chapter, convinced that professional development could not continue in a place that no longer reflected her principles.

During the same period, Al Jazeera renewed an offer first made more than eight years earlier and remained in contact throughout her year in the United States. The move was daunting: her background was largely in social programming, while the network’s journalists worked at a demanding political level. She chose the challenge, moved to Qatar and began again with the discipline of a new student.

Her first Al Jazeera broadcast covered exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Colleagues applauded when the coverage ended, an affirmation that moved her to tears. Less than seven months after joining, she presented management with an idea for a programme; after further development, she was assigned to prepare and present it.

She does not regard awards as the final measure of success, but as encouragement to continue working. Her distinctions included selection among the 100 most influential figures in the Arab world in both 2017 and 2020, and inclusion among more than 500 influential Muslim figures worldwide in 2019.