In 2009, 18-year-old Al-Kateab moved to Aleppo to study economics at the University of Aleppo.[1] In 2011, when the Syrian Civil War broke out, she began reporting on the war for Channel 4 News in the United Kingdom.[8] She elected to stay and document her life over five years in Aleppo as she falls in love with Hamza – her friend-turned-husband, a doctor – and gives birth to their first daughter, Sama ("Sky") in 2015, which became the basis of For Sama. For covering the Siege of Aleppo, she won an International Emmy for her reporting, the first Syrian to do so.