Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Special correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is based in Berlin. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and read at NPR.org. From 2012 until 2018 Nelson was NPR's bureau chief in Berlin. She won the ICFJ 2017 Excellence in International Reporting Award for her work in Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson was also based in Cairo for NPR and covered the Arab World from the Middle East to North Africa during the Arab Spring. In 2006, Nelson opened NPR's first bureau in Kabul, from where she provided listeners in an in-depth sense of life inside Afghanistan, from the increase in suicide among women in a country that treats them as second class citizens to the growing interference of Iran and Pakistan in Afghan affairs. For her coverage of Afghanistan, she won a Peabody Award, Overseas Press Club Award, and the Gracie in 2010. She received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award from Colby College in 2011 for her coverage in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson spent 20 years as newspaper reporter, including as Knight Ridder's Middle East Bureau Chief. While at the Los Angeles Times, she was sent on extended assignment to Iran and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She spent three years 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.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nelson speaks Farsi, Dari and German.
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For years, authorities failed to see links in the killings of nine immigrants and a German policewoman. Now, a trial that will focus on right-wing extremists is about to begin. -
In Hanover, Germany, the Russian leader was greeted by three women protesters who stripped off their tops before shouting expletives at him. While he professed to enjoy their demonstration, Putin's aides want the women punished. -
The prince's dream of reintroducing European bison, or wisent, into Germany's most densely populated state will soon be reality. It will be the first time in nearly 300 years that these creatures will roam Western Europe. But not everyone is as excited as the prince. -
A developer wants to knock down a remnant of the Berlin Wall to make way for luxury apartments. Some Berlin protesters 鈥� and actor David Hasselhoff 鈥� have been trying to stop it. -
Like Americans, the Swiss have an entrenched gun culture 鈥� it's not uncommon to see regular citizens out in the public with a gun slung across their back 鈥� and most are vehemently opposed to gun control. Yet Switzerland has a far lower rate of gun violence than in the U.S. -
Despite Germany's long association with beer, it looks like its citizens are imbibing less of their celebrated beverage now than they did a generation ago. Some cite the economy as a factor; others, the rise of health consciousness. -
Buyers are snapping up property in Germany, leaving some analysts worried that it's a bubble in the making. But others say the conservative approach to home ownership, including a tradition of large down payments, will protect the market from a U.S.-style crash. -
The outcome is unofficial at this point as the government has said it will not announce official results until the referendum concludes in the rest of Egypt next Saturday. Though voting counts differed, most major supporters and opponents of the constitution reported it had received a majority "yes" vote. -
Turnout was high Saturday morning at polling stations in several Cairo neighborhoods where Egyptians are deciding whether to approve their country's controversial draft constitution. -
The new international airport in Berlin has become a major embarrassment to Germany. The airport was supposed to replace the three airports that operated in the once-divided city. But with major cost overruns and safety issues, the project has been delayed three times already.
