Maliha Masood born 1972 is an award-winning writer in creative nonfiction and the author of the travel memoir, Zaatar Days, Henna Nights (Seal Press/2007). A native of Karachi, Pakistan, Maliha moved to the United States at the age of twelve and grew up in Seattle. She's a graduate of the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

She was born in Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. She moved to the States at the age of twelve and grew up in the suburbs of Seattle. Fluent in Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Maliha studied International Business at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 and worked as a research analyst in the IT sector for six years before turning towards writing.

Selected for the Jack Straw Foundation writers forum in 2005, Masood's writings on women, culture and Islam have been featured in Al-Ahram

Al-Ahram

Al-Ahram , founded in 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya . It is majority owned by the Egyptian government....

 Weekly, Asia Times

Asia Times

Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....

 and the anthologies Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality, Waking up American and Bare your Soul: A Thinking Girl's Guide to Spirituality. Maliha also appeared in and co-wrote a documentary film, Nazrah: A Muslim Woman's Perspective. She is the founder of the cultural theater collective Diwaan.

Maliha did her graduate studies at Tufts University

Tufts University

Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

 and Harvard, earning her Master's in Law and Diplomacy in May 2004. She briefly worked in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 at the International Crisis Group

International Crisis Group

The International Crisis Group is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts around the world through field-based analyses and high-level advocacy.-History:...

 and the Human Rights Commission, before moving back to the Pacific Northwest. Maliha is currently based in Kirkland, Washington

Kirkland, Washington

Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. It is a suburb of Seattle on the Eastside . The population was 48,787 at the 2010 census makes it the 9th largest city in King County and the 20th largest city in the state...

.