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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In Seattle in the time of coronavirus, every day brings unsettling decisions. Ride the bus? Go to Starbucks? How about pre-natal yoga class? Several women at a recent session shared their concerns.
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In a suburb of Seattle, plans to convert a hotel into a quarantine site has sparked controversy.
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St Louis's top prosecutor Kim Gardner has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging a racist conspiracy against her. She says every time she tries to change things, she's blocked.
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Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the executive producer of a new documentary focusing on the lives of black Americans on both sides of the Revolutionary War, whose stories aren't often told. -
Huey Lewis & The News just released their first album of original music in almost 20 years. But Weatheralso might be the last for the band's frontman, whose hearing collapsed two years ago.
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The South's Changing DemographicsMore black Americans are moving south, changing the demographics of major metropolitan areas. We look at how these moves are shifting the political landscape.
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NPR's Leila Fadel reflects on stories she covered in 2019 on the race, identity and culture beat. -
Cities in the West that are dealing with an explosion of homelessness are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that limits bans on camping in public parks and rights of way. -
The Legal Battle Over Homeless CampingWestern cities dealing with an explosion of homelessness are urging the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that sharply limits camping bans in parks and other public places.
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Navigating The Fallout Of Alleged Abuse And Betrayal In A Sacred Muslim SpaceAn American Muslim organization severed ties with its founder over allegations of abuse. It reignited a conversation among American Muslims about how to hold faith leaders accountable.
