Leila Ben Mcharek obtained her PhD in Applied Social Sciences at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, Paris 3 (France). She is a consultant and honorary fellow at the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at the University of Western Australia. Her current research interests include countering violent extremism (CVE), jihadi mobilisation strategies, and strategic communications, with a focus on North Africa and the Sahel. She is the co-author of an upcoming book “A Leap into the Unknown: Tunisian Women and the Temptation of Jihadism” (under contract). Since 2000 Leila has lectured and tutored in universities in North Africa and Australia. As a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship, she was a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington DC). She has also held positions in the British Embassy in Tunis and in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and consulted to a United Nations body.