Murphy has worked in America as a reporter for The Washington Post and for The Christian Science Monitor.
As a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, she reported in the following regions: South Africa (following the Soweto uprising and Steve Biko slaying by the police); Cairo as bureau chief, in charge of Arab world coverage; and Kuwait during border crossing and subsequent Emirate occupation by Iraqi forces.
She was part of team covering the Gulf War from Southern Arabia, and she was a reporter for three months during a tour of duty in Baghdad.
[4] In 2002, in the Washington Post's Book World she was described by Emran Qureshi, as having engaged in "careful reporting and cogent analysis [that] present[ed] readers with an indispensable opportunity to understand how the variegated strands of Islam – tolerant reformist traditions as well as militant anti-Western ones – have taken root in the Arab world's most vital civilization."
Murphy has written two books: Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience, and A Kingdom's Future: Saudi Arabia Through the Eyes of its Twentysomethings (illustrated by Kathy Buttefield).