Amal Kassir (Arabic: امل قصير; born 6 June 1995)[1][2][3] is an American international award winning spoken word poet.

[5] She was born to Melissa, an Iowa-German convert to Islam living in Nebraska and Mahmoud Kassir, a Syrian.

She was passionate for human rights from a young age, as her mother recalled how once when Amal was four and they were cleaning the garage, the child climbed atop the pile of castoff items and began reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

As two years later the terrorist attack against the Twin Towers on the 11 September occurred, a person threw a brick-stone through the window of the family restaurant and Kassir was insulted for wearing a hijab.

[6] Her parents decided to move to Kassir's grandmother's house on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.