and ISAF military operation in Marjah, Afghanistan in 2010. While in Afghanistan, Abawi embedded with U.S., NATO and Afghan forces numerous times, including during the major U.S. Before Afghanistan, she worked on several prominent international stories including the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan and Youssif, the young Iraqi boy burned by insurgents in Iraq. In 2008, she was named CNN's Afghanistan correspondent and manager of its Kabul bureau. After graduating from Virginia Tech Abawi worked as a reporter CTV 76, a local TV station in Largo, Maryland, before moving to Atlanta to work for CNN and then NBC News.Īt CNN, Abawi started in the Media Operations department before working her way up to producer and then to foreign correspondent. After graduating from Annandale High School, Abawi went to Virginia Tech.

Early life Ībawi was born in West Germany, to Afghan parents who fled Afghanistan following the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. She is fluent in Dari and is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Abawi is known for her strong support for female empowerment in both her writing and reporting. Her first book, the critically acclaimed The Secret Sky: A Novel of Forbidden Love in Afghanistan was published by Penguin Random House in September 2014. While working as a foreign correspondent, she was based in Kabul, Afghanistan, for almost five years.

Atia Abawi (born 1982) is an American author and television journalist.

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