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.
-
Most of the federal government is shut down after Congress failed to reach a funding agreement. We asked two House members — a Democrat and Republican — where they think talks go from here -
NPR speaks with Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., about the government shutdown.
-
Government shutdown begins after Congress fails to reach a deal, federal workers brace for effects of shutdown, Trump tells gathering of commanders the military should be used against "enemy within."
-
Dr. Omar Awadallah, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, talks about President Trump's 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza.
-
NPR speaks to Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, about the fight in Congress over funding the government.
-
The American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump's threat of mass layoffs during the shutdown. NPR speaks with the union's president Everett Kelley.
-
Before the U.S. suspended visitor visas for Palestinians in August, one helped change a young woman's life. NPR speaks to her and the American surgeon who saved her leg.
-
BBC Music Introducing named Olivia Dean artist of the year in 2023 following the release of her debut album. Now, Dean is back with her second studio album, The Art of Loving. -
"Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery" recalls the success of the woman-led music festival created by singer Sarah McLachlan. McLachlan and documentarian Ally Pankiw talk about the film.
-
NPR speaks with Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, about the country's role in the conflicts in the Middle East and Sudan.
