Heidi Reichinnek, currently chair of the so-called "Die Linke" ("The Left") party in Germany, studied Arabic. Guess where she fits in.
spoiler
Of course she's a fed. She studied in Egypt for a while, before/during the Arab Spring. While there, she worked for the Egyptian branch office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the CDU-affiliated policy think tank. She wrote a policy paper for them, arguing (as was certainly the assignment) that Germany should talk and explore cooperating with various "uncouth" actors in the region.
She also personally helped train activists in social media use to organize protests. The Egyptian authorities made sure to put her on a flight out when things heated up. Nevertheless, during an interview where she talks about both of those things separately, she feigns ignorance why the Egyptians thought harmless little her might warrant escorting to the airport.
Learning the Arabic script and phonology is quite easy and straightforward, you can start 
