Parastou Hassouri is a Cairo-based, independent researcher and consultant focusing on refugee and migration law and policy. She regularly teaches courses on international refugee law and Palestinian refugees and international law at The American University of Cairo, and has worked as a consultant both with offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Morocco, Turkey, and Jordan, among other places, as well as with different NGOs focusing on refugee and migrant rights. She previously worked as a Legal Advisor and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Focal Point at Africa and Middle East Refugee (AMERA) in Cairo. Her experience in the United States includes serving as an Attorney-Advisor at the Immigration Courts of New York City and Los Angeles and working as an immigration attorney in private practice in New York City. In addition, she designed and directed the Immigrant Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, where she focused on responding to ethnic profiling and other forms of anti-immigrant backlash in the United States in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11.