I have been wrong to use Pandith’s name to claim her religion. If one is to believe this report from Greater Kashmir, then she is a practicing Muslim, which is great…
Srinagar, June 26: She left Kashmir at the age of two but her love for the homeland is evident through her works on different aspects of life in valley and continues to echo in her eloquent speeches. The 41-year-old Farah Pandith, who was appointed special representative to Muslim communities in the US state department headed by Secretary of state Hillary Clinton, hails from Sopur in north Kashmir. An alumni of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Farah did her post graduation thesis on insurgency in Kashmir.
Recalling her as a kid, Farah’s uncle, Abdur Rashid Pandith, who resides in Sopur, said Farah was two when her mother, Dr Mehbooba Anwar left for US in 1969 to meet her brother. “A year later, my brother and father of Farah, Anwar Ahmad Pandith also went to US where he started his own business of Kashmir art and finally settled there,” he said. According to her uncle, Farah was frequent visitor to her native place in Sopur till 1990. “I met her last time in 1995 at US when she was doing her PG in Boston University,” said her uncle. Describing her as a brilliant student and great orator, Abdur Rashid said: “The then US President George Bush’s wife hailed her speech at Boston and appointed her as secretary. Later President Bush appointed her as a representative for Afghanistan, Palestine and other Muslim countries.”
Regarding her personal life, her uncle says: “She is not married yet. She prays five times a day despite her hectic schedule in the state department.” Farah’s younger brother, Adeel Pandith is an engineer and works in US.
“I talked to Farah yesterday and congratulated her on her new assignment,” said Abdur Rashid.
Asked whether he talked to Farah on Kashmir, he said, “Every word of hers will be calculated as she represents US State department. I couldn’t talk to her yesterday, but surely she knows better than me what she can do for Kashmir and Kashmiris.”In Sopur, Pandiths are respected business family and Farah’s grandfather Abdul Samad Pandith was a well-known businessman.
Farah is not alone who had made Kashmir proud but another Sopur girl Afeefa Sayeed is working as senior advisor in the Obama administration’s global aid agency, the US Agency for International Development. Afeefa is daughter of Prof Sayeed Muhammad Sayeed, who had migrated to US in 1973.
