Biography
About Sybilla Claus
Anthropologist, political analyst, journalist and author. Worked for years at Trouw and earlier at De Telegraaf. Before her journalism career she was, among other things, a bus driver and a self-defence instructor.
As an anthropologist she travelled frequently to Zimbabwe. Her book Standplaats Harare (KIT Publishers, 2008) records that work. For the Dutch press she wrote hundreds of pieces on politics, women's rights, religion and — over the past decade — on the downside of gender ideology.
In 2019 Onbekend maar niet vergeten appeared at Ambo|Anthos, written with cold-case detective Carina van Leeuwen. In that book she follows the forensic investigation into the unidentified dead of Amsterdam, from DNA analysis to visiting relatives.
In September 2024 her anthology Gender Rebels was published by Uitgeverij het Haantje. With forty contributions from women in the Netherlands and abroad she explores why a growing group of girls want to escape womanhood. The English edition Rebel Girls follows in 2026 at Spinifex Press.
What drives her
Women's rights as practical work
Sybilla writes about feminism not as abstract theory but as daily practice: women in prison, girls online, women in religious communities.
Biological reality
"You cannot switch sex; no one can escape their biological sex." The starting point of her gender-critical work.
Therapy before intervention
For children with gender dysphoria, therapeutic treatment must always take precedence over irreversible physical procedures — a position she shares with child psychiatrists worldwide.
Against the silent consensus
Topics that aren't discussed in progressive circles — women's oppression in Islam, men in women's spaces — take centre stage in her work.
External profiles & socials
Gender Rebels
genderrebels.org →Ambo|Anthos
Author page →Houtekiet (Belgium)
Author page →Sybilla Claus
Anthropologist, journalist and author. Author of Gender Rebels (2024) and the upcoming Rebel Girls (Spinifex, 2026).
Published by Uitgeverij 't Haantje · © Sybilla Claus