Born in India, Asra Nomani immigrated to the United States as a child with her family, learning English as a second language with Nancy Drew as her best friend. Growing up in Morgantown, West Virginia, Nomani earned her BA at West Virginia University and her MA in International Communications at American University. Having arrived in the United States as a girl who knew not a word of English, she joined the Wall Street Journal at the age of 23 in the summer of 1988 as a staff reporter. Over 15 years at the Wall Street Journal, she covered the airline industry, international trade, the travel industry, the Department of Transportation and other regulatory agencies.
After the 9/11 attacks, on book leave from the Wall Street Journal, Nomani flew to Pakistan to report on the "war on terrorism" for Salon magazine. Her colleague and friend Daniel Pearl was visiting her home when he left for an interview from which he didn't return, kidnapped and brutally murdered. In that moment, the trajectory of Nomani's career as a journalist shifted, and the next year, she began writing columns, op-eds and essays, advocating for moderation and women's rights in Islam. She published op-eds in the Washington Post, the New York Times and numerous outlets.
She wrote a book, Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love (HarperOne, 2003) and Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam (HarperOne, 2005).
She is cofounder of the Pearl Project, which investigated Pearl's kidnapping and murder at Georgetown University, where she was a professor in the practice of journalism. The project published an e-book, "The Truth Left Behind" (Center for Public Integrity).
Nomani is cofounder of the Muslim Reform Movement. She is now vice president of strategy and investigations at Parents Defending Education and editor of a multimedia project IndoctriNation, that documents concerns by parents, teachers and community members about curriculum, contracts and other issues in K-12 schools.
She can be reached at asra@asranomani.com
