Leila Fadel
Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race.
Most recently, she was NPR's international correspondent based in Cairo and covered the wave of revolts in the Middle East and their aftermaths in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and beyond. Her stories brought us to the heart of a state-ordered massacre of pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Cairo in 2013 when police shot into crowds of people to clear them and killed between 1,000 and 2,000 people. She told us the tales of a coup in Egypt and what it is like for a country to go through a military overthrow of an elected government. She covered the fall of Mosul to ISIS in 2014 and documented the harrowing tales of the Yazidi women who were kidnapped and enslaved by the group. Her coverage also included stories of human smugglers in Egypt and the Syrian families desperate and willing to pay to risk their lives and cross a turbulent ocean for Europe.
She was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club for her coverage of the 2013 coup in Egypt and the toll it took on the country and Egyptian families. In 2017 she earned a Gracie award for the story of a single mother in Tunisia whose two eldest daughters were brainwashed and joined ISIS. The mother was fighting to make sure it didn't happen to her younger girls.
Before joining NPR, she covered the Middle East for The Washington Post as the Cairo Bureau Chief. Prior to her position as Cairo Bureau Chief for the Post, she covered the Iraq war for nearly five years with Knight Ridder, McClatchy Newspapers, and later the Washington Post. Her foreign coverage of the devastating human toll of the Iraq war earned her the George. R. Polk award in 2007. In 2016 she was the Council on Foreign Relations Edward R. Murrow fellow.
Leila Fadel is a Lebanese-American journalist who speaks conversational Arabic and was raised in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
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Out of Cairo on Monday came new indications that Egypt's military chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will run for president in an election expected within the next three months. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's highest military body, disseminated a message praising Sisi and endorsing him for a presidential bid.
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On Jan. 25, 2011, millions of Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo to demand President Hosni Mubarak step down. Now those who led the revolution have all but disappeared, and iconic Tahrir Square is a bitter place for many — a reminder of a momentary high in a battle they say they have lost. -
Prominent athletes, high school students and young girls have all been punished, and in some cases arrested, for expressing solidarity with protesters who were killed by Egypt's security forces. -
Egypt's post-revolution transition has been tumultuous. Now, many Egyptians are ready to settle for a return to the pre-revolution status quo: a strong, military man who can guide Egypt back to stability. Their hopes are pinned on Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the ouster of Mohammed Morsi. -
They are being held by a militia paid to deal with the flow of illegal immigrants into and through Libya. Most will be deported. Libya has long been a magnet for migrants from the region. European countries are now criticizing its policies, but Libyan authorities say they need help to secure the country's borders. -
More than two years since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi, Libya is growing more chaotic. Analysts describe a nation awash with heavy weapons in the hands of militias divided by tribe, ideology and region. The central government has little power over the gunmen, and leaders worry their country could become another Somalia or Afghanistan. -
Since the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, Egyptian authorities have been systematically trying to break his Muslim Brotherhood. Their most recent target: the mosques and charities that formed a vital part of the Brotherhood's vast social network and helped it dominate recent elections. -
Sisters Nagwa, Dina and May had always been close — until now. The political crisis in Egypt has ripped apart their relationships. One sister believes the Muslim Brotherhood is destroying the country; the other two are committed Islamists. It's a domestic tragedy that is playing out across Egypt. -
The young, secular revolutionaries who led the 2011 uprising against the Hosni Mubarak regime have been pushed to the margins of the current confrontation in Egypt. They also feel they are battling two sets of authoritarian forces — the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. -
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was released from prison on Thursday. He is under house arrest at a military hospital in Cairo. Mubarak could go back to prison if he's convicted in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising against him.
