Pakinam Amer is the Middle East correspondent for the German News Agency (DPA). She previously worked as the politics and public affairs writer for the International Herald Tribune and The Daily Star Egypt. She has also written for the Associated Press and the Arab News. She is a graduate of the American University in Cairo (AUC), where she studied journalism, psychology, political science and playwriting. She is an M.A. candidate in journalism and mass communication at AUC.