--- title: Witness to History date: 2014-06-10T03:00:00-04:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/witness-to-history" section: Articles --- # Witness to History *June 10, 2014* — by [Liam Farrell](/authors/liam-farrell) - *PHOTOS COURTESY OF NPR, AP IMAGES* *Protestors crowd Egypt’s Tahrir Square — Protestors crowd Egypt’s Tahrir Square in one of the historic moments covered by journalist Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson. Photo by NPR.* **From writing about sludge** on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to covering protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, journalist Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson ’85 (below left) has witnessed the gamut of human experience. But no matter the location or the language, Nelson has found the everyday and the historic share common ground. *Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson — Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson* “Intense” is the word to describe Nelson’s career. In Iraq, a militia captured her and had a warrant for her execution as a spy before releasing her. She speculates that her Iranian background may have been why they let her go. “In the worst situation, I tend to be calm. That doesn’t mean I’m not afraid,” she says. “No matter how many preparations you make, you have to be ready for the unexpected. I was lucky.” Nelson switched from print to radio in 2006, when she opened the Kabul, Afghanistan bureau for NPR. Print outlets have shifted from the international coverage she values; in Kabul, she battled harsh winters and scarce resources, and covered her head with a blanket to keep the sound of electric generators from interfering with recordings. *Unrest in Ukraine was one of the more recent events reported by Nelson. Photo by AP Images. — Unrest in Ukraine was one of the more recent events reported by Nelson. Photo by AP Images.* --- [*Click here to access an archive of Nelson’s NPR stories.*](http://www.npr.org/people/7407153/soraya-sarhaddi-nelson/archive) **Issue:** [Spring 2014](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/spring-2014) **Types:** [Class Act](https://terp.umd.edu/category/class-act)