Ammar Abdulhamid was born on May 30, 1966 to a well-known artistic family in Damascus, Syria - his mother being the country's ’s superstar actress, Muna Wassef, and his father the famous movie director, Muhammad Shahine (who passed away on January 17, 2004).

Being from a cultured and religiously mixed background in a country that is still quite traditional and sectarian, the question concerning religious identity was bound to come up sooner or later. The issue was eventually settled, after a rather long excursion into various expressions of Islamic Fundamentalism, when Ammar ended up embracing what can best be termed as “secular humanist values,” though he would prefer to remain "unlabeled."

Ammar spent an important part of his life in the United States (1986-1994) studying astronomy and history (he graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point in 1992 with a BS in history), and purging himself of his religious zealotry, as noted above.  He returned to his home-country in September, 1994 and has been living there ever since.

After many years haphazardly spent in teaching, writing and working as a simultaneous translator and consultant to various European and international developmental programs in Syria, Ammar finally decided to get involved more seriously in the social and intellectual development of his country. His decision coincided with the conclusion of his novel, The Whore With The Trillion Vulvas, mere months before the death of Syria's President Hafiz al-Assad on June 10, 2000.

This only served to revive Ammar's longstanding illusion that he is somehow working in collusion with destiny. Although this may not be a necessarily healthy feeling or attitude, it is nonetheless too deeply ingrained in Ammar's psyche to be completely removed.

Auto-psychoanalysis notwithstanding, in cooperation with a number of friends and colleagues, Ammar finally established DarEmar, a publishing house/NGO dedicated to raising the standards of civic awareness in the Arab World through a wide-range of activities and programs, including book-publishing, organizing and taking part in conferences, seminars and workshops, and the establishment of a variety of electronic forums and services. Shortly thereafter, Ammar, and in cooperation with a number of friends and regional and international advisors, launched the Tharwa Project, a program designed to shed some lights on the aspirations and concerns of the religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East.

In 2001, Ammar met and married Khawla Yusuf (born on September 26, 1968), a Syrian fashion designer and activist with her own rather complicated experience with life and religiousness. They currently live in Damascus with their two teenage children: Mouhannad (1990) and Ola (1986).