Marilyn Tadros came to the United States in September 1998. She was an Egyptian human-rights activist who, in the early years of the 2000s, served as a board member of Grassroots International and as deputy director of the Cairo-based Legal Research and Resource Center for Human Rights.

Tadros was also the founding president and executive director of Virtual Activism (VA), a Rhode Island-based nonprofit organization established in 2001. VA’s stated objectives at that time were to: “strengthe[n] nongovernmental organizations’ effectiveness and outreach through Internet access and presence”; “trai[n] nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] … to be self-sufficient and independent in their use of the Web”; and assist “the most marginalized NGOs in the Global community, with particular attention to women’s organizations.”