Sabah Hamamou (صباح حمامو) is deputy business editor at Al-Ahram, Egypt's and the Middle East's oldest newspaper. She started her career, in 1994, as a general assignment trainee reporter at one of Al-Ahram publications, the monthly Al-Shabab magazine, while at the same time attending Cairo University .
After Hamamou obtained a BA in Arabic and literature in 1997, she decided to dedicate her career to news media, in addition to working for Al-Shabab, she began to write pieces for the Saudi Al-Jazeera, a world famous daily newspaper, the Emirati Al-Maraa Al-Youm, an independent weekly magazine, the Egyptian Al-Qahira, a government owned weekly newspaper, as well as other publications.The turning point in Hamamou's career came in 2003, when she was offered a permanent position at Al-Ahram daily newspaper, as a staff writer in the business section. Despite having no previous experience in business journalism Hamamou decided to accept the challenge, for she strongly believes in the crucial role that serious and dedicated business reporters can play in shaping their countries' future, particularly for countries undergoing economic transition.
In 2005, after spending over ten years reporting in the Arabic language, Hamamou decided to accept a new challenge: She began to write in English, and her English language articles have been published in Cairo Magazine,Cairo Magazine, an independent weekly publication, The Daily News Egypt, and Al-Ahram Weekly.
Hamamou has been chosen to represent Al Ahram as well as Egyptian journalism on the international level, and has received several awards and fellowships for her work in journalism, including:
Best Journalist Certificate of Merit from Al- Ahram Regional Institute For Journalism, 2003.
Middle East and North Africa Media Fellowship from Northwestern University, 2006.
Knight Wallace Fellowship, University of Michigan, in 2010,Hamamou was the first Egyptian journalist to be awarded this prestigious Fellowship.
Although she began her career in print-media,Hamamou has also embraced the challenges and rewards of new media: She occasionally produces video reports and maintains a blog and professional profiles on various social media networks.She is also very much interested in exploring the realm of documentary film.
If not trying to nail down some figures on the Egyptian Economy or starring on her computer screen, Hamamou can be found either packing or unpacking, since traveling, photography and exploring new cities are her favorite things to do if not working.
Most of Sabah Hamamou's family lives in Egypt.Recently, however, she discovered that she has an extended family in Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, USA and God knows where else.
Her first book about media practices in Egypt and her own personal experience as a journalist to be published soon.
EMAIL: Hamamou[a]ahram.org.eg
Skype: sabahHamamou
GMAIL:sabah.hamamou
Twitter: Hamamou
YoUtUbE: SabahHamamou
Samples of her writing can be found here.