Rend al-Rahim Francke
Encyclopedia
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She is considered to be a secularist trying to enable Iraq to transition to a liberal democratic model.
Personal life
Francke was born in BaghdadBaghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
to an affluent family and spent some of her childhood there. Her background is unusual in that her father is a Shiite Muslim and her mother is a Sunni Muslim
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
. She went to boarding school in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and later studied at Cambridge University where she earned a Masters Degree in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
. She worked as a bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
er and a currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
trader in Lebanon and Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, as well as London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Her family moved to England in 1978 and later emigrated again, this time to the United States in 1981. She became an American citizen
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
in 1987.
Rend is married and has one child, Christopher, who recently graduated from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies , a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's leading and most prestigious graduate schools devoted to the study of international affairs, economics, diplomacy, and policy research and...
and is an amateur DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
.
Politics and advocacy
In 1991, Francke established the Iraq Foundation in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, to lobby for democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and regime change
Regime change
"Regime change" is the replacement of one regime with another. Use of the term dates to at least 1925.Regime change can occur through conquest by a foreign power, revolution, coup d'état or reconstruction following the failure of a state...
in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. In her role as executive director she represented the foundation with government and non-government institutions, including speaking before Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Francke has been an ally of the Bush administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
in its Iraq foreign policy and is sympathetic of its neoconservative foreign policy. She is quite liberal though with respect to domestic policy. A staunch secularist
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
, she did not cover her hair when she was ambassador for Iraq and continues to oppose fundamentalist politics in Iraq. She was part of the 'Committee for the Liberation of Iraq' which was set up to lobby Congress to pursue the administration's goal of invading Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
from power.
In 2002 she testified in front of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee and emphasized the long-term commitment needed to rebuild Iraq. She promoted 'Nation Building', emphasizing law and order as well as the prevention of retribution. In particular she did not want a repeat of the Afghanistan operation
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
where the United States minimized its immediate efforts in its rebuilding after the fall of the Taliban, calling such an operation, "a hit-and-run". She also thought it unlikely that Iraq would break up into three components.
Francke was appointed to the position of Iraqi ambassador to the United States on November 23, 2003. This was very unusual given that she was also a United States citizen. However in October 2004 she was forced to resign due to American pressure for various reasons. They included the fact that she had made critical comments over U.S. handling of post-war Iraq in testimony to Congress and on TV interviews, that she was a cousin and close associate of Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi is an Iraqi politician. He was interim oil minister in Iraq in April-May 2005 and December-January 2006 and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006. Chalabi failed to win a seat in parliament in the December 2005 elections, and when the new Iraqi cabinet was...
, then under investigation for leaking intelligence to Iran, and for her apparent refusal to lead a delegation on a visit to wounded U.S. troops at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
In 2004, she was a guest of Laura Bush
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...
in the First Lady's Box at the State of the Union address
2004 State of the Union Address
The 2004 State of the Union Address was a speech delivered by U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday, January 20, 2004.-External links:* , The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara* at C-SPAN...
. The Iraq Foundation (an organization she co-founded) itself help set up the Iraq-America Freedom Alliance which has tried to stress the positive impacts of the American invasion
2003 invasion of Baghdad
The Battle of Baghdad also known as the Fall of Baghdad was a military invasion of Baghdad that took place in early April 2003, as part of the invasion of Iraq....
and occupation of Iraq. It describes its mission as publicizing "the stories of Iraqis and Americans who are building a secure, stable and democratic future in Iraq." She has said that she is disappointed with the post-war reconstruction effort, especially the initial lack of planning. However she continues to support the administration and its policies particularly as they have grown more determined to stabilize Iraq and has confidence that the US administration can be successful. On April 27, 2007, she appeared on the O'Reilly Factor and argued strongly for the United States' presence in Iraq.
Views
Francke is a supporter of the United States and the Bush administration, but also has heavily criticized its role, which many believe led to her resignation. Moreover, Francke also criticized the role of Iraqis towards the United States. In a recent interview conducted by the Greater Good Science CenterGreater Good Science Center
The Greater Good Science Center, located at the University of California, Berkeley is an interdisciplinary research center devoted to the scientific understanding of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior. By studying individuals and their relationships,...
, Francke said, " I think there's a great deal of negligence. It's not evil; its negligence and insensitivity..and I don't think it's possible to keep a healthy relationship unless you show that you care about a person, or a group of people, on a continuing basis." Francke claims that sympathy and empathy on both sides are needed if Iraq is to be repaired. She concludes, "It is all a question of showing that you care about the other, that you're in a partnership - not a relationship of occupier and occupied. You're not in a relationship where it's the all-powerful and the powerless."
full interview can be found at http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/current_issue/qa.html