Ramadan Around the Clock: Hoda Zakaria, Reporter

This year Hoda Zakaria will be experiencing Ramadan a little differently than usual. The award-winning investigative journalist is expecting a baby girl and so will not be fasting this year.

Used to covering challenging topics, Youm7 reporter Zakaria broke the story about deceiving the recent stem cell therapy scam, and went undercover as a Sudanese refugee to expose a fake artificial limbs business. This Ramadan she’ll be working mostly from the office.

“Before getting married, it was only the first day of Ramadan that I gathered with my family for iftar,” says Zakaria who is used to working long hours during the holy month, breaking her fasting with her fellow journalists.

This year she’ll need to make more time for her family. “Working as a journalist is like an addiction . . . and anyone who has chosen to be part of this field should know that it will be difficult to find time for friends and family amid the unrelenting demands of work.”

Zakaria is of Nubian origins but grew up in Cairo where she pursued her dream of working as a journalist. Her goal is to draw attention to Nubian society and its many successful figures in business, medicine, engineering and so on.