Karen Attiah…YouTube
Karen Attiah
Karen Attiah is a Ghanaian-American writer and Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post.
She’s gaining traction in the media in recent weeks for speaking out about the disappearance of Saudi Arabia journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Fearing the worst had happened to Khashoggi, Attiah let his column space remain blank with the title “A missing voice” and her tweet with the empty space sent shockwaves throughout the world as it was retweeted by a thousand others including Christiane Amanpour.
Since then, the 32-year-old has emerged as a leading voice of protest and grief, demanding answers about the fate of Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist and Virginia resident who has since been said to be brutally murdered.
Attiah, in a recent interview with Marie Claire, said she first reached out to Khashoggi about a year ago after some 30 clerics were detained in what seemed to be a crackdown on dissents by Mohammed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
“His first column for us blew up. It spiked in traffic. That’s when we realized we had a force on our hands. At the time, I didn’t know that was his coming-out piece: his first time speaking in English on a platform as big as The Post about being in exile, about why he felt he had to leave. We asked him to contribute more articles,” she told The New York Times in reference to the first column written by the veteran journalist.
“I’m not someone who just gives up,” she said. “This is something I can’t let go of or ever forget.” She, has, however, taken solace with the fact that though people may have taken his life, they can never kill his words.
