Sahar Aref is an Egyptian social researcher, translator and writer. She is a Ph.D. candidate; her dissertation talks about the Salafi trends in Egypt and the impact of their becoming considerable political players on society, particularly on women. Sahar Aref is interested in studying personal growth from Western and Islamic perspectives and topics concerning Islam and women. She published her first book in Arabic in 2007. It is a short research study that draws from and combines Western and Islamic personal growth principles. She publishes Arabic articles on her homepage: www.sahararef.net and will soon publish her first book in English. It describes her personal experiences in overcoming hardliner attitudes about women in Islam. Sahar Aref is a wife and a mother of a son and two daughters. She earned her Master’s degree at The American University in Cairo, in sociology/ anthropology, has studied Arabic/English translation at The American University in Cairo, and earned her B.A. in English and comparative literature at Girls’ Colleges, Riyadh, K.S.A.