Loading ...8 Egyptian Women Making A Difference Around The World
By Alexandria Kinias
Egyptian Streets
From North America, to Europe, to Australia, Egyptian women are holding leading positions in politics, business and entertainment.
1. ANNE AZZA ALY
Anne Azza Aly is an Australian politician, political scholar, academic and counter-terrorism expert. She has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since the 2016 election, representing the electorate of Cowan.
Anne Azza Aly was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1967, and migrated to Australia at the age of two years. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1990 with a BA in English Literature, and in 1994, and received a Master of Education degree in 1996, and PhD in 2008, from Edith Cowan University. Her PhD thesis focused on media and culture, and was entitled Audience Responses to the Media Discourse on Terrorism: The Fear of Terrorism.
Before she entered parliament, Anne Azza Aly worked in education and multicultural affairs policy for the Government of Western Australia After obtaining her PhD, she lectured in counter-terrorism and security at Edith Cowan University and at Curtin University. She has also operated her own policy consulting firm since 2011.
2. RANDA FAHMY HUDOME
Randa Fahmy Hudome is Egyptian- American who has more than twenty-five years of legal and public policy experience. In 2003, Randa launched Fahmy Hudome International (FHI), a strategic consulting firm which provides critical advice and counsel to Fortune 500 companies, foreign governments, media organizations, and private sector entities with an interest in international business transactions and energy policy.
Prior to founding FHI, Ms. Fahmy Hudome was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the United States Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy. Working with the White House and the Departments of State and Commerce, she developed and implemented international energy policy. Randa was also the point person at the Department of Energy for increased advocacy on behalf of American energy companies seeking business around the globe.
Prior to government service, Randa was a practicing attorney with the law firm of Willkie, Farr and Gallagher, where she specialized in the areas of international trade and corporate litigation.
3. NAGUA ALBA GOWELI
Nagua Alba Goweli is the youngest parliament member in Spain and the first of Arab origin. Born to an Egyptian father and a Spanish mother, she belongs to Podemos (We Can) Party. In January 2016, she headed the first procedural parliament session according to the Spanish constitution as its youngest member. She was 25.
She is a graduate of psychology from the University of Madrid.
4. HODA KOTB
Hoda Kotb was born in August 9, 1964, in Norman Oklahoma, is an Egyptian-American television news anchor and host, mostly known as the co-host of NBC’s Today Show. She won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2010 as part of the Today Show team. Kotb is also a correspondent for Dateline NBC.
Kotb graduated in 1986, with a BA in broadcast journalism from Virginia Tech. She authored three books. Her first book Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee, was on NYTimes best selling list in 2010.
5. SHERRIE MIKHAIL-MIDAY
Miday is the first Egyptian and Arab-American elected judge in America. She won her seat in the November 2016 election, and now presides over Ohio’s largest county court dealing with some of the most difficult civil cases and crimes. She is motivated by her Egyptian immigrant parents to make the world a better place.
Judge Miday was born on October 12, 1976 in Cleveland two years after her parents immigrated from Cairo. She was the first Egyptian-American woman running for judge and the first EgyptianAmerican elected to the bench in United States history.
She studied at John Carroll University, graduating in 1998, before going on to study for her doctorate in legal studies from Case Western Reserve University in 2001.
Judge Miday worked as a lawyer in a Cleveland legal office for six years, qualifying her to then run for the post of judge. She worked as a prosecutor for three years and another three as the assistant to a judge, before eventually running for office.
6. DINA HABIB POWELL
Egyptian-American Dina Habib Powell joined the Trump administration in a senior role focused on entrepreneurship, economic growth and the empowerment of women. Powell was born in Cairo as Dina Habib in 1973 and immigrated to the US with her parents at a young age.
She is an American business executive and former U.S. policymaker. She was the head of Goldman Sachs’ Impact Investing business and head of Goldman Sachs foundation. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Powell served as Assistant Secretary of State (Minister) for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Deputy Undersecretary of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy for the United States government, and as the Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel under President George W. Bush.
7. NEMAT TALAAT SHAFIK
Nemat Talaat Shafik is the first woman to run London School of Economics. Shafik was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England for two years before she quit her job to join the London School of Economics.
She was the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, a position she held from 2011 to 2014. She previously served as Permanent Secretary of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) beginning in March 2008.
An economist by training, she has held a number of senior positions in international organisations as well as spoke, taught and published extensively on globalisation, emerging markets and private investment, international development, the Middle East and Africa, and the environment.
Shafik was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1962. Her family left Egypt in the 1960s, and she lived in the United States as a child, later returning to Egypt where she graduated from high school. After a year at the American University in Cairo, she went to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where she completed a B.A. in economics and politics.
8. SOUMAYA YACOUT
Soumaya Yacout is the Professor of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering at École Polytechnique de Montreal. Also labeled as the Egyptian-Canadian Iron woman, Dr. Yacout is the first-ever woman appointed, in 1997, as Dean of Engineering at the University of Moncton, and Academic Dean at the École Polytechnique de Montreal, later in 1999.
She was also the first woman to ever be nominated as Dean of Engineering for a French-speaking University in Canada. During her career, she has supervised more than forty masters and doctoral students.
Dr. Soumaya Yacout earned a Doctorate of Science in Operations Research from the George Washington University. Earlier in 1979, she received her MSc. in Industrial Engineering, and BSC. in Mechanical Engineering in 1977 from Cairo University.
