Jane Arraf
Jane Arraf covers Egypt, Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East for NPR News.
Arraf joined NPR in 2016 after two decades of reporting from and about the region for CNN, NBC, the Christian Science Monitor, PBS Newshour, and Al Jazeera English. She has previously been posted to Baghdad, Amman, and Istanbul, along with Washington, DC, New York, and Montreal.
She has reported from Iraq since the 1990s. For several years, Arraf was the only Western journalist based in Baghdad. She reported on the war in Iraq in 2003 and covered live the battles for Fallujah, Najaf, Samarra, and Tel Afar. She has also covered India, Pakistan, Haiti, Bosnia, and Afghanistan and has done extensive magazine writing.
Arraf is a former Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Her awards include a Peabody for PBS NewsHour, an Overseas Press Club citation, and inclusion in a CNN Emmy.
Arraf studied journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa and began her career at Reuters.
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About 3,800 objects purchased by Hobby Lobby were returned to Iraq in May. Some come from an ancient Sumerian city, Irisagrig, and indicate that life there was "pretty good," an archaeologist says. -
Homosexuality isn't illegal in Egypt but human rights groups say other laws have been used to target LGBT Egyptians. "Prison killed me. It destroyed me," says an Egyptian woman jailed after a concert. -
The U.S.-backed coalition says it aims to oust Iranian-sponsored Houthi rebels, but aid groups warn of potentially high civilian casualties. -
The U.N. pulled foreign staff from Hodeidah amid efforts to avert an attack by pro-government forces backed by the United Arab Emirates. A shutdown of the port could put hundreds of thousands at risk. -
More than 500 foreign women are accused of being married to ISIS fighters and are standing trial in Iraq. The women have more than 1,100 young children. All face a perilous future. -
King Abdullah appointed economist Omar Razzaz as his new prime minister. It will be up to Razzaz to defuse a crisis over a plan that would levy income tax even on those earning $11,000 a year. -
Two weeks after parliamentary elections delivered a surprise win for allies of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq's divided political leaders are scrambling to put together a coalition government. -
Iraqis voted in their first election since the military defeat of ISIS over the weekend. While final results have not been issued, one near-certain result is the political rise of Iraq's Shiite militias.
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The major winner could be an alliance linked to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, known for leading attacks on U.S. troops after the invasion of Iraq, while Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi loses support. -
In the country's first election since declaring victory over ISIS, 24 million Iraqis are eligible to vote. But at one polling center in Baghdad, journalists far outnumbered voters.
