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Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

Credit Steve Barrett

International correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is based in Cairo and covers the Arab world for NPR from the Middle East to North Africa. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning programs including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

In 2006, Nelson opened the NPR Kabul Bureau. During the following three and a half years, she gave listeners an in-depth sense of life inside Afghanistan, from the increase in suicides among women in a tribal society that sees them as second class citizens, to the growing interference of Iran and Pakistan in Afghan affairs and the impact of Western policies in the region. For her coverage of Afghanistan, she won a Peabody award, Overseas Press Club award and Gracie in 2010.

Nelson came to NPR in 2006, after spending more than two decades as a newspaper reporter. She served as Knight Ridder's Middle East Bureau Chief from 2002 to 2005 where she specialized in covering Iran. As a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Nelson was sent on extended assignment to Iran and Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Nelson spent three years as an editor and reporter for Newsday and was part of the team that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for covering the crash of TWA flight 800. She also spent time at the the Orange County Register covering Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nelson speaks Farsi, Dari, and German. She is married to long-time reporter Erik Nelson and they have a son.

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Middle East
10:01 pm
Tue November 15, 2011

Egyptian Groups Plan Mass Anti-Military Protests

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Credit Mahmud Hams / AFP/Getty Images
Egyptians attend a rally calling for a rapid transition from military to civilian rule in following the February ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Credit Mahmud Hams / AFP/Getty Images
An Egyptian soldier stands guard as supporters of former President Hosni Mubarak gather outside the courts set up at the Police Academy in October.
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Political parties, activists and Islamist groups in Egypt are threatening more mass protests in Cairo and other cities Friday against a document drafted by the interim government that would enshrine the powers of the Egyptian military.

It's the latest clash between Egypt's pro-democracy factions and the ruling military council, which is accused of clinging to power despite its pledge to cede control to an elected government.

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Middle East
1:14 pm
Tue November 15, 2011

Islamist Parties Proliferate In Post-Mubarak Egypt

Credit Asmaa Waguih / Reuters /Landov
Election banners hang near buses in Cairo on Monday. Parliamentary elections — the first since the end of President Hosni Mubarak's decades-long rule — will begin Nov. 28. Groups with Islamist ties are expected do well in the polls.
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Egypt holds parliamentary elections this month and many people expect the outcome to be similar to recent polls in Tunisia, where an Islamist party won the largest bloc of seats.

Nearly a dozen official parties with ties to Islamist groups have sprung up in Egypt since the summer, and most analysts predict they will do well.

Gamal Ashry is one parliamentary candidate. He's with the Freedom and Justice Party, the political offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world's largest and oldest Islamist movement.

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Middle East
10:01 pm
Wed November 9, 2011

Saudi Women Drive Change Despite Mixed Signals

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Middle East
1:00 pm
Thu October 13, 2011

Saudi Arabia's Delicate Dance On The Fate Of Yemen

Credit Mohammed Huwais / AFP/Getty Images

Thousands of anti-government protesters in Yemen demonstrate against President Ali Abdullah Saleh last month. Saudi Arabia wants Saleh to step down, but also worries that his departure could lead to chaos.

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Originally published on Thu October 13, 2011 8:25 pm

Saudi Arabia, which places a premium on stability, appears to be sending mixed messages these days on what it wants from its volatile southern neighbor, Yemen.

On one hand, the kingdom is demanding that Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh step aside after months of protests against his more than 30 years of rule.

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Africa
8:00 am
Thu October 13, 2011

Libyan Arms Flow Into Egypt Across Northern Sinai

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Credit Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson / NPR

Ali Madaan, 45, is one of the Bedouin guards protecting the al-Midan station in Egypt's northern Sinai. The natural gas pipeline there has come under repeated attacks.

Credit Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson / NPR

In recent months, local residents say Islamists have attacked and damaged this shrine in Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai. Egyptian and Western officials have raised concerns about Islamist groups springing up in North Sinai, but the locals say they wield no power here.

Credit Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson / NPR

Fayez Eid, 61, says he and five other Bedouins guard the al-Midan station. He says the company turned down the Egyptian military's offer to guard the 14 stations for nearly $2 million a year.

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Originally published on Thu October 13, 2011 12:04 pm

The Sinai Peninsula has proven a major security headache for Egypt's military rulers since a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak eight months ago.

Gunmen who crossed over the border into Israel from southern Sinai killed eight civilians in August. In northern Sinai, unknown assailants have repeatedly attacked a natural gas pipeline feeding Israel and Jordan.

But what ultimately may prove more problematic for Egyptian authorities is the growing number of northern Sinai residents who are arming themselves with heavy weapons coming in from Libya.

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