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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Muslims make up about 9% of state prisoners, though they are only about 1% of the U.S. population, a new report from the civil rights organization Muslim Advocates finds.
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A year ago Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration's travel ban on several majority-Muslim countries. It has had life-altering implications for many families. -
An uprising around a New York bar, Stonewall Inn, 50 years ago sparked a movement pushing for LGBTQ civil rights. The success of that movement saw a powerful backlash from the modern religious right.
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Many say the storm of criticism around Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the first black Muslim woman in Congress, is more about who she is than what she says. Her experience is familiar to other Muslim leaders. -
Conversion therapy aims to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. The practice is discredited by mental health professionals and is linked to higher rates of suicide. -
Civil rights and faith leaders are demanding a meeting with the FBI director. The message: time to prioritize white nationalist violence. -
Many American Muslims feel vulnerable following the attacks in New Zealand. Other faith and community groups are stepping in to offer solace and to say they are not alone. -
Civility is about more than simple politeness. It's a line of respect in public life. It's a comfort to some and repressive to others. And a majority of Americans believe it's in a state of crisis. -
In a rural county of Nevada, some are asking what it takes to unseat the sheriff, whose alleged behavior has led to numerous complaints and at least one lawsuit. -
The Southern Poverty Law Center says many groups are driven by white supremacist ideology and the "hysteria over losing a white-majority nation." Critics accuse the group of overblowing the threat.
