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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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Africa
2:22 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

In Egypt's Vote, Islamists Expect Strong Showing

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Credit Tarek Fawzy / AP
Sobhi Saleh, right, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood and candidate for parliament, speaks to voters at a polling station in Alexandria, Egypt on Monday. The Brotherhood is expected to make a strong showing in the polls.
Credit - / AFP/Getty Images
Members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood take part in a press conference in Cairo on April 30, to announce the formation of a new party, the Freedom and Justice Party, to contest up to half of parliament's seats in a September election.
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Dozens of veiled women tried to squeeze past each other Monday and into a polling station in the working-class neighborhood of Raml in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria.

They were eager to cast ballots for a clean-shaven man in a crisp blue suit and matching tie.

His name is Sobhi Saleh and he heads the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party ticket in three of Alexandria's districts. The party is considered the best organized in Egypt and is expected to do well in the country's first election since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February.

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NPR Story
3:21 pm
Fri November 25, 2011

Political Protests In Egypt Intensify, Expand

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Egypt's military rulers named a former prime minister under Hosni Mubarak to head the new government. The move is likely to further incite the tens of thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square, demanding the resignation of the ruling military council. And for the first time, pro-military protesters gathered in another of Cairo's squares.

Africa
3:00 am
Tue November 22, 2011

Amid Clashes, Egypt's Cabinet Offers To Resign

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Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer in for Renee Montagne.

Clashes between protestors and security forces continue across Egypt. That's despite an offer last night by the interim civilian cabinet to resign.

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Middle East
11:01 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
2:14 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
11:01 pm
Wed November 9, 2011

Saudi Women Drive Change Despite Mixed Signals

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Middle East
2:00 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 9:25 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
9:00 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 1:04 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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World
2:00 pm
Mon October 10, 2011

In Egypt, Grief Among Coptic Christians Turns To Rage

Credit Mahmud Hams / AFP/Getty Images

Christians protest outside St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, a day after 25 people, mostly Christians, died in clashes with Egyptian security forces.

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Ormany Makary's coffin teetered precariously as throngs of mourners carried the 25-year-old truck driver's body to the front of Abbasiya Cathedral, chanting "Raise up your head, you are Copts!"

But his fiancee, Saafa Gaber, couldn't.

Makary was among the 25 people killed in a night of clashes between mostly Coptic Christian protesters and Egyptian soldiers.

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Middle East
1:53 pm
Thu September 29, 2011

In Saudi Arabia, Only Men Vote, And Not Often

Credit Hassan Ammar / AP
Saudi men wait to cast their votes in municipal elections in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Turnout appeared to be low. King Abdullah says that women will be allowed to vote in the next municipal elections, in 2015.
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In Saudi Arabia, where King Abdullah has the only vote that really counts, elections are still a novelty.

Municipal elections on Thursday marked just the third ballot in the kingdom's history. Only men could vote in polls to fill half the seats on some 300 municipal councils. The other half are appointed by the government.

Even before the polls closed, Saudi officials declared the election a success. But turnout appeared low at many voting stations, including in the capital, Riyadh.

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