Leyla has experience in research, analysis, journalism and communications.

She has an MA in Middle Eastern Law and Politics from SOAS, University of London, and a BA with a double-major in Political Science and Media from the University of Toronto. She is also the co-founder of Mada Masr, one of the Middle East's top news and analysis startups. She has worked for Egyptian, Italian and international news outlets including the Financial Times, the Guardian and Egypt Independent.

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She tells local and global stories in English, Arabic and Italian and showcases them through video, print, podcasts and data visualization.

Dead Sea, Jordan, 2017 

Press 

" Thousands of other Coptic Christians stood next to him as they protested the burning of a church by Salafis days earlier in the neighborhood of Atfeeh, Helwan. It was then, less than a month following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, that the Maspero Youth Union (MYU) was born." 

 - March 12 2014,  Mada Masr 

Published work samples 

Special reports

Financial Times Egypt Special Report 

Environment & Food sovereignty 

Egypt's Slow Food Movement 

Political affairs  

Egyptian police killed over 900 protesters in 2011 in Cairo

social justice 

Egypt Constitution draft raises concerns about women's rights 

Cairo, 2016

Podcasts 

" One of the most beautiful things I saw during my trip was when I first woke up and the Nile water was clear, and smooth, and not moving. It was like a mirror." 

 - Collete Belle, the first woman to kayak from Aswan to Luxor, Egypt. 

Videos

" Iowa is considered one of the breadbaskets of the world and yet a lot of the state's farmers are hungry."

- Ahna Kruzic, Director of Publications and Communications at Food First 

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Miami, 2016 

Data Visualization

I aim to display data in interesting ways through interactive charts, visual maps and much more. 

Cartagena, Colombia, 2017