The White House is the center of decision-making of America and most probably of the whole world, and in a marvelous precedent, a number of Iranian women employed in a variety of jobs and sometimes in sensitive ones at the white house.
Voice of America site (VOA) of US State Department has presented the four Iranian women who work in the White House, and praised the service they do make for the United States.
Ferial Govashiri
Barack Obama’s Special Assistant since 2014
Govashiri works as a special assistant for the President Barack Obama, and earns an essential annual salary of a US $ 100,800.
She completed her university studies in political science specialization; she organizes President Obama’s agenda on foreign travels and his meetings with foreign presidents in the White House . According to her statement on BBC channel that her Iranian origins had a significant role in accessing and continuing in this profession.
In her reply to a question by BBC reporter if Iranians had requested to carry their messages to the US president, Govashiri said:
“so many Iranians asking me, and sometimes I do, but in my particular way, as well as some of them presenting gifts to President Obama, and I deliver them to the team in charge to collect gifts in the White House”,
She add, ” I am seeking to let my Iranian origins to leave a mark on my job” .
Govashiri is a member in the National Council of the US-Iranians (NAYAK) that is an Iranian lobby founded by Trita Parsi in 2001, featuring American figures of Iranian origins currently occupies a governmental position in Washington; this lobby is active openly to defend the interests of the Iranian regime, Govashiri also a member of the American-Iranian Women’s Association.
Sahar Nowruz Zadeh
Official US National Security of Iran Affairs in the White House
Nowruz Zadeh was born in Connecticut State of America of Iranian parents. She has migrated with her parents to the United States more than forty years ago. Sahar received her bachelor’s degree in international affairs and international economy from George Washington University in 2005, and then she had a master degree in Iranian studies from the University of Maryland in 2007.
She started work at the government sector; in 2005 as an analyst at the Ministry of Defense. Then she decided to work in the foreign policy and diplomacy sector, joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and after that she became in 2014 one of the national security advisors.
The Washington Post pointed out that there is an Iranian woman within the Consultative Council of President Obama. The newspaper added that the day before the expiration of Lausanne nuclear negotiations, Nowruz Zadeh was attending at the consultations between John Kerry and Obama, as US media had revealed that Nowruz Zadeh was working in an active lobby for Iran’s interests in the United States and it had a role in the nuclear dealing .
Sahar has received important awards including the Director of National Intelligence Office award, FBI award, and granted the Golden Medal for combating terrorism by the US Secretary of Defense.
Nowruz Zadeh mastered Persian, Arabic and English, and she is a member in (NAYAK) since 2009.
Mandana Fatemi
Public Relations Office at the White House
Mandana Fatemi is working at Public Relations Office at the White House; she is a senior analyst and project manager of the Presidential Correspondence Office
Mandana earns an essential annual salary of 42,000 US dollars , her parents Amir Fatemi and Mahshid Fatemi came to America in 1977. They settled in the city of Jacksonville in Florida, at the age of the eighteen Mandana volunteered in Obama’s campaign, and it was her first time to react an interest in politics.
In 2012, Mandana graduated from George Washington University and joined the training program of the White House in 2013, which, according to the White House it is ” a program aiming to make the (People’s House) accessible to future leaders from all over the country”.
Mandana is now the director of an office specialized in receiving messages written by pupils and students for the US President, where the department studying them. Later Mandana delivers a summary of these messages. She has full authority to comment, accept and sometimes reject part of them and forward them to President Obama personally .
Pantea Faed
Office of Social Affairs in the White House
Pantea is working in the Office of Social Affairs in the White House, an institute which is responsible for organizing the many banquets and meetings of President Obama and the First Lady.
Faed earns an essential annual salary of US $ 45450. She studied at the Athenian School in Danville, California, and then she graduated from the University of Southern California in 2012. Pantea began her work in the White House in 2013 as a temporary intern, and verified in working with Ms. Michelle Obama .
During the ceremony, which held on Eid Nowruz at the White House this year, the guests showed relish and admiration for the organization of the ceremony.
Obama said that this ceremony organized by Pantea Faed, and Michelle Obama, noted in her speech to the audience at the White House on this occasion, to the role of Pantea in this ceremony and said “Pantea spent a long time in organizing this event, and I’m very proud of her. She has grown and raised here, in the White House. She is highly intelligent and innovative in many aspects; in fact, she organizes many of our daily activities. I am proud of their existence among us in the White House” , it is worth to mention that Pantea also a member of the Iranians National Council – Americans.
Hedieh Ghaffarian
Chief Coordinator of Flowers in the White House
Ghaffarian was born in Tehran, and then immigrated to America with her parents since childhood after the Islamic Revolution.
Ghaffarian grew up in the city of Los Altos Northern California, and studied the middle and high school in this city, where her ornamental and decorative talent started to appear.
In the early of her twenties, she began to sell her designs in the garage of their home. After 25 years of ingenuity that submitted among more than 1000 exhibits she intended to work in the White House, and The First Lady only chose her after she overtook a number of applicants for this job .
The presence of these women who are the first generation of Iranian-Americans that have access to such positions in the White House, in the most important institution for decision-making in America is worrisome matter for many puritans in America.
By the time of his election as US Secretary, Joan Kerry confront a severe criticisms because of his daughter husband’s Iranian origin, the US inside expressed his fear about this relationship between Vanessa and the Iranian doctor to affect on John Kerry’s political situation versus Tehran.
White House Web site, 2014 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff, http: //soo.gd/ZaiO
Site of Asr Iran, four Iranian women in the White House, http://soo.gd/uoJT
BBC Farsi, a dialogue with female Iranian employees in the White House, http://soo.gd/a8x7
Site of Washington Post, Iran talks conference call: A lesson in how not to become famous in Washington, http://soo.gd/JPk7
White House Web site, 2014 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff, http: //soo.gd/ZaiO
Jackson Will site, Frank Denton: Another generation of the American dream, http://soo.gd/BXGi
Site of Asr Iran, four Iranian women in the White House, http://soo.gd/uoJT
White House Web site, The First Lady Celebrates Nowruz at the White House, http://soo.gd/GYVV
Site of Asr Iran, four Iranian women in the White House, http://soo.gd/uoJT
