Washington Post taps Parker as Cairo bureau chief

Washington Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl, deputy foreign editor Jennifer Amur and Middle East editor Jesse Mesner-Hage sent out the following on Friday

With Cairo as her base, she will cover a region where countries once gripped by democratic aspirations have more recently sunk deeper into authoritarianism or been ripped apart by conflict. She will be part of a Middle East and North Africa team that includes correspondents in Jerusalem, Istanbul, Beirut and an additional location that will serve as an anchor for coverage of the Persian Gulf region.

In her time at The Post, Claire has demonstrated the agility, resilience and incisiveness required to succeed in this challenging role. As an assistant editor and then staff writer on the International desk for the past two years, she has played a central role in anchoring coverage of major news stories and delivering the sharp, accessible explanatory reporting intended to help readers make sense of the world. She has also showcased her dexterity by filling in as a correspondent, most notably during a six-week stretch in the fall that included back-to-back tours in Afghanistan and Israel.

Claire began her career at The Post as a summer intern in 2019, then reported from Paris for the Associated Press as an Overseas Press Club Foundation scholar. She freelanced for The Post and other outlets from Tunisia, where she was studying Arabic, then rejoined The Post as editor of the Today’s WorldView newsletter. She previously studied Arabic in Morocco.

Claire is a graduate of Harvard University, with a BA in social studies that included a secondary concentration in Near Eastern languages and civilizations. She speaks advanced French and near-advanced Modern Standard Arabic. She is also conversational in the Tunisian dialect and will soon begin to study colloquial Egyptian.