Amr - Egypt

Amr and I went to grad school together at American University in Washington, DC, where we got our degrees in International Peace and Conflict Resolution. Amr stood out to me for a few reasons. First, because he was one of only a small number of men in our program! But also because he was an international student and, unlike the majority of our classmates, actually had experience in the field. Prior to starting grad school, he had been a humanitarian worker with the United Nations Refugee Agency for a number of years in several different countries. For that reason, I always wanted to hear more from him on the topics we were learning about, because I knew he had seen and dealt with these issues first hand. It wasn't just theory for Amr, and so I looked up to him and valued his perspective. We also had a lot of fun together when we weren't in class or writing term papers, and I remember the heartfelt conversations we had as we navigated the joys and difficulties of life. Since grad school, Amr has continued his humanitarian work, serving the most vulnerable of the Libyan and Syrian crises, as well as in Yemen, and Iraq. Amr continues his work with the United Nations, currently in Jordan, where he is covering the whole of the Middle East region. He lives there together with his wife, and they recently had a new baby that is filling their home with joy (the photo above is of Amr and his son shortly after he was born - it is the photo Amr chose for this feature as the "best picture of him.")

"I understand the openness of Islam where I was taught the spiritual values of inclusiveness from my religious family. I am now married to a Catholic, in which we had our marriage ceremony in a mosque. As a Muslim, I support my wife in her practice of Christianity, and my family back in Egypt welcomes her beliefs. As they say in Islam, you have your religion and we have ours, as long as we live in peace."