Ebru Umar

Under the influence of Theo van Gogh, she gave up a career in management and became a columnist, first for van Gogh's website and, after he was assassinated, as his successor as a regular columnist of Metro.

[1] She writes for a number of Dutch magazines and has published four books, often on the topics of feminism and criticism of Islam.

Her father is a retired anatomic pathologist, her mother an ophthalmologist.

[3] After studying management and working for a while as a manager, she began writing, under the influence of Theo van Gogh,[2] and wrote columns for his website (van Gogh was her "friend and mentor"),[4][5] and soon began writing for a number of other Dutch newspapers.

[9] Umar, an atheist, has a reputation for outspokenness, a characteristic her parents say she has had from an early age.