Shirin Tahirkheli to Advise
Rice on Muslim Women
Washington,
DC: Shirin Tahirkheli has been appointed by Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice as her senior adviser on women’s empowerment,
working with the Office of the Under Secretary for Public
Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes.
Tahirkheli will focus especially on the Bush administration’s
“multifaceted outreach to the women of the Muslim world,”
an official announcement from the State Department said. “The
empowerment of women is vital to the president’s agenda
for promoting democracy and freedom. Strengthening the role
of women and providing opportunities for them are important
elements in economic development as well as social and political
progress,” the announcement added.
Currently, Dr Tahirkheli is serving as Rice’s senior
adviser on United Nations reform. Previously, she served as
special assistant to the president and senior director for
democracy, human rights and international operations at the
National Security Council from 2003-2005. She was also a research
professor and Founding Director of the South Asia Program
at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Paul Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
She served as head of the US delegation to the UNCHR in 2001
and alternate US representative to the UN for special political
affairs (1990-1993).
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