Was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. In 2000, she received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the American University in Cairo, where she worked as a reporter, managing editor, and editor in chief for the campus newspaper. For two years, Mariam has worked as a journalist for the Associated Press in Cairo and reported from Egypt and Iraq. After getting her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University next May, Mariam will do a summer internship at The New York Times. She then hopes to report from the Middle East, where religion is a part of the region’s politics, cultures, and lifestyles.