Asra Q. Nomani (MA, American University, Washington, DC; BA, West Virginia University) is an author and former staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal who has written about politics, business, popular culture, sexuality, the war in Afghanistan, terrorism, and Islam. Born in Bombay, India, she grew up in Morgantown. She started her career as a journalist at the Daily Athenaeum. After graduating from American University, she began a career at the Wall Street Journal covering the airline industry, air safety, international trade, and travel, during her 15-year tenure.
What began as an assignment from her editor at the Wall Street Journal to investigate AmericaӒs hottest new fad, the secrets of sexual ecstasy in Tantra, became a story that led Ms. Nomani half-way around the world and changed forever her life, faith, and self-identity. She researched her first book, Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love (Harper-SanFrancisco), by traveling throughout South Asia. Ms. NomaniԒs journey unexpectedly climaxed after Sept. 11, 2001, in Pakistan, where she covered the war in Afghanistan for Salon magazine. She risked great danger in joining the hunt for kidnapped fellow reporter Daniel Pearl.

In her journey, Ms. Nomani traveled the globe in search of this elusive divine love,Ӕ but ultimately hers is a journey of self-discovery in which the power within herself and within all women is revealed. Beliefnet magazine selected Tantrika as one of its top spiritual books in 2003. Her second book, Standing Alone in Mecca: A Muslim Womans Pilgrimage to the Heart of Islam, will be released in January 2005. Ms. Nomani lives in Morgantown with her family and son Shibli. 

http://www.as.wvu.edu/cwc/speaker_bio.html