Biography

Sahar Aref is an Egyptian social researcher, translator and writer.
She is a Ph.D. candidate; her dissertation talks about the Salafi
trends in Egypt and the impact of their becoming considerable political
players on society, particularly on women.
Sahar Aref is interested in studying personal growth from Western and Islamic perspectives
and topics concerning Islam and women. She published her first book in
Arabic in 2007. It is a short research study that draws from and combines Western
and Islamic personal growth principles.
She publishes Arabic articles on her homepage: www.sahararef.net and will soon
publish her first book in English. It describes her personal experiences in overcoming
hardliner attitudes about women in Islam.
Sahar Aref is a wife and a mother of a son and two daughters.
She earned her Master’s degree at The American University in Cairo, in sociology/
anthropology, has studied Arabic/English translation at The American University in
Cairo, and earned her B.A. in English and comparative literature at Girls’ Colleges,
Riyadh, K.S.A.