Mariane Pearl is a versatile reporter, journalist, and columnist for Glamour magazine. She is the widow of a Wall Street Journal Reporter, Daniel Pearl , who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in early 2002. She works in English, Spanish and French languages.
Pearl was born on 23 July 1967 in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, to Dutch and Afro-Cuban parents. When Mariane met Daniel, her husband, who was on an assignment in Paris, she was a freelance journalist like him. Mariane and Daniel married in August 1999 and lived for a time in Mumbai, where Daniel was the South East bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. Later, the couple moved to Karachi, Pakistan to cover the aspect of the war on terrorism.
While living in Karachi, one day, Daniel want off to meet with people he was intending to interview. Since then, he never came home. In February 2002, it was shown on the television that Daniel was paraded in front of cameras and brutally murdered by terrorists. Their son Adam Daniel was born three month after his father, Daniel's murder in Paris.
After Daniel's murder, Mariane wrote her memoir, 'A Mighty Heart', which was published in the United States in 2003. A Mighty Heart is an account of her experiences during that traumatic period. Determined not to be broken, she wrote this memoir celebrating the values of dignity and humanism while offering the details of the investigation led in Pakistan to rescue her husband. Her book won international praise and was translated into 15 languages.
In 2007, the book was adapted in a movie, directed by Brad Pitt, starring Angelina Jolie in the role of Mariane Pearl. Mariane and Angelina became friends prior to the making of the movie and remain close friends. Mariane's second book, 'In Search of Hope' is a collection of profiles of extraordinary women around the world. Moreover, her 'Global Diaries' feature women from Mexico, Colombia, Cambodia, Italy, Uganda, the United States, the North Pole, Russia and more. They mainly focus on women who are role models in the way they used their own lives for transforming their environment.
Compared with what she had experienced and presented during the period of her husband's murder, Mariane's personal career background seems of little significance to her readers. The regional security officer at the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, Randall Bennett, once told Mariane Pearl, ''You can't collapse; everybody else might, but not you. They won't get you. You're the strongest women I have ever seen.” Mariane not only faced this incidence in her life with a strong will, but raised the courage to write the experience out in her memoir 'A Mighty Heart' as well.
As a journalist, Mariane contributes to many publications such as The Sunday Times, The New York Times, Self Magazine, the Conde Nast traveler and others. She also works for producing documentaries and broadcast media reporting. She is a reporter as well as Global Diary columnist for famous Glamour magazine. She also has founded the Daniel Pearl Foundation. Currently, she is working on a documentary on resilience and writing her third book. She now lives in US with her son and still pursing justice from Pakistani government for Daniel's murder.
