Prior to moving to South Africa, Mahr spent four years based in New Delhi, where she reported extensively throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan and India as Time’s South Asia bureau chief and as a special correspondent for South Asia for Reuters. Earlier, Mahr was based in Hong Kong at Time’s Asia headquarters as an associate editor and journalist, where she reported throughout east and southeast Asia. Mahr has a Masters degree in print and video journalism from the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She has been granted fellowships by the Overseas Press Club Foundation to work in Greenland and the International Reporting Project to work in South Sudan, and her work has won awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia and Amnesty International Hong Kong's Human Rights Press Press Awards.