Layla Al-Zubaidi is Director of the Southern Africa office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Cape Town since 2012. From 2006 to 2012 she headed the Middle East Office in Beirut, Lebanon. Prior to that she was Media & Information Manager at the Foundation's office in Ramallah, Palestinian Territories, where she also worked for the GIZ, Deutsche Welle and other development and media institutions.

Layla Al-Zubaidi studied social anthropology in Berlin and Bloomington, United States. She specialises in human rights, women’s rights, media, and freedom of expression. She published an article in the London Review of Books on creative expression in the Syrian uprising. Volumes she co-authored and -edited include "Walking a Tightrope: News Media and Freedom of Expression in the Middle East (HBF), “Anywhere but Now: Landscapes of Belonging in the Eastern Mediterranean” (HBF), “Unmaking Power: Democratic Transition in the Middle East” (Routledge) and “Diaries of an Unfinished Revolution: Voices from Tunis to Damascus” (Penguin), which won the UK PEN award.