Ayman al-Zawahiri, Leader of al-Qaeda After Bin Laden

 Zawahiri, Ayman al-

Ayman al-Zawahiri, also spelled Ayman al-Ẓawāhirī, also called ʿAbd al-Muʿizz, (b. June 19, 1951, Giza, Kingdom of Egypt — d. July 31, 2022, Kabul, Afghanistan), was an Egyptian physician and militant who became one of the major ideologues of al-Qaeda.  Zawahiri led al-Qaeda from 2011 until his death in 2022.

Zawahiri was raised in Maʿādī, Egypt, several miles south of Cairo. Although his parents were from prominent families, Zawahiri and his siblings were raised in a relatively humble environment. Zawahiri was a pious youth. As a student, he was greatly influenced by the work of Sayyid Qutb,  an Egyptian writer who was one of the foremost figures in modern Sunni Islamic revivalism. By the age of 15, Zawahiri had established a group dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government in favor of Islamic rule.

Zawahiri then studied at Cairo University’s medical school, where he specialized in surgery. There he also continued his clandestine cactivities. He graduated in 1974 and then served for three years as an army surgeon. In 1980–81 he traveled as a relief worker with the Red Crescent to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he treated refugees affected by the Afghan War. During that time he made several cross-border trips into Afghanistan, where he witnessed the warfare firsthand.

After returning to Egypt, Zawahiri was one of several hundred militants arrested in the wake of the assassination of Egyptian President  Anwar Sadat in October 1981. Zawahiri was convicted of illegal arms possession and imprisoned for three years. During that time he was subjected to torture by intelligence officers interested in information about his contacts, an experience that intensified his militancy. In 1984, Zawahiri was released from prison. The following year he left for Saudi Arabia. From Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he returned to Peshawar and then moved on to Afghanistan. During this period, Zawahiri became acquainted with Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi who had joined the Afghan resistance to the Soviets.  In 1988, Zawahiri was present at the founding of al-Qaeda.

In the early 1990s, Zawahiri assumed leadership of the militant group Egyptain Islamic Jihad (EIJ). Bin Laden had departed for Sudan in 1992, and Zawahiri ultimately joined him there. Sudan served as a base for the training of militants and for attacks on Egyptian targets, including attacks on government officials and on the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan. In June 1995, an unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Under international pressure, the Sudanese eventually expelled Zawahiri and bin Laden, along with their followers.

Zawahiri’s next movements are unclear. he appears to have traveled to European countries that included Switzerland, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands. In late 1996 he was arrested by Russian officials while illegally crossing the border en route to Chechnya, where he planned to launch a new base for EIJ. Although he was jailed for six months, Russian agents were apparently unaware of his identity until after his release.

In 1998, Zawahiri and bin Laden forged a formal alliance, and in June 2001 EIJ and al-Qaeda were merged. Zawahiri was closely affiliated with both the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000 and the attacks of September 11, 2001.  Zawahiri gradually became al-Qaeda’s chief spokesman, issuing commentary on issues such as the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the 2006 warfare between Hezbollah and Israel.  In 2009, the United States Department of State determined that Zawahiri appeared to be al-Qaeda’s leading decision maker, while bin Laden reportedly occupied a figurehead status.

Zawahiri assumed formal leadership of al-Qaeda in June 2011, following bin Laden’s death during an American commando raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the previous month. The group struggled to reclaim its relevance and maintain its organizational integrity after Zawahiri took the reins. Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq,  the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL); also called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS]), bucked Zawahiri’s management in 2013. The Nusrah Front, al-Qaeda’s most prominent affiliate in the Syrian Civil War, rejected Zawahiri’s command in 2016. Both groups ultimately severed ties with al-Qaeda.

After the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan in 2021, and after the United States withdrew its remaining troops, Zawahiri took up residence in Kabul,  the capital city of Afghanistan. The United States, after learning his whereabouts, killed Ayman al-Zawahiri with a drone strike on July 31, 2022. 

Haleh Afshar, Iranian British Muslim Feminist Activist

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Afshar, Haleh

Haleh Afshar (‎b. May 21, 1944, Tehran, Pahlavi Iran – d. May 12, 2022, Heslington, England) was a British life peer in the House of Lords. 

Haleh Afshar was born as the eldest of the four children born to Hassan Afshar and Pouran Khabir on May 21, 1944 in Tehran.  Afshar was a professor of politics and women's studies at the University of York,  England, and a visiting professor of Islamic law at the Faculté internationale de droit comparé (international faculty of comparative law) at Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France. Afshar served on several bodies, notably the British Council and the United Nations Association, of which she was honorary president of international services. She was appointed to the board of the Women's National Commission  in September 2008. She served as the chair for the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.  Afshar was a founding member of the Muslim Women's Network. She served on the Home Office's working groups, on "engaging with women" and "preventing extremism together".

Afshar was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 Birthday Honours for services to equal opportunities.  On October 18, 2007, it was announced that she would be made a baroness and join the House of Lords as a cross-bench life peer.  She was formally introduced into the House of Lords on December 11, 2007, as Baroness Afshar, of Heslington in the County of North Yorkshire.

In March 2009, Afshar was named as one of the twenty most successful Muslim women in the United Kingdom on the Muslim Women Power List 2009. The list was a collaboration between the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Emel Magazine, and The Times, to celebrate the achievements of Muslim women in the United Kingdom. 

In April 2009, she was appointed an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. 

Afshar died from kidney failure at her home in Heslington on May 12, 2022 at the age of 77.

In 2011, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.  

In January 2013, Afshar was nominated for the Services to Education award at the British Muslim Awards. 

In 2017, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford.  

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Haleh Afshar, Who Fought for Rights of Muslim Women, Dies at 77

An Iranian-born British scholar and self-described “Muslim feminist,” she joined the House of Lords and advised the British government on women’s issues.

Haleh Afshar in 1983. An Iranian-born British scholar, she was a champion of Muslim women’s rights and was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2005.Credit...via Afshar Dodson family

By Nazila Fathi

June 24, 2022

Haleh Afshar, a prominent Iranian-British professor who dedicated her career in government and scholarship to promoting the rights of Muslim women, died on May 12 at her home in Heslington, England. She was 77.

The cause was kidney disease, her brother Mohammad Afshar said.

Ms. Afshar, who was known as Lady Afshar, was the first Iranian-born woman to be appointed to the House of Lords, receiving the title of baroness. She held multiple advisory roles with the British government on gender issues and the role of Muslim women in Britain. A longtime professor of politics and women’s studies at the University of York, she helped start the Muslim Women’s Network UK and was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her efforts.

A self-described “Muslim feminist,” Ms. Afshar spoke out against the government of Iran for blocking educational opportunities for women, arguing that the regime was frightened of educated women because education enabled them, as she put it, to “read classical Arabic, access the Quranic teachings and demand their rights.”

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In her book “Islam and Feminism,” published in 1998, Ms. Afshar argued that feminism was compatible with Islam, suggesting that the gap between secular and religious women had narrowed. She pointed to the Islamist feminists who joined a reform movement a year earlier that led to the election of Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who advocated a more liberal interpretation of Islam based on the needs of modern times, as president.

Among the many books she wrote and edited were “Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil” and “Women in the Middle East: Perceptions, Realities and Struggles for Liberation.”

Ms. Afshar joined the House of Lords in 2007 as a crossbench life peer, a term used for a member of an independent or minority party, and began working with the Women’s National Commission, a government advisory group.

Her brother described Ms. Afshar as a Shiite Muslim who linked the need for women to have access to education with a fundamental right to interpret the Quran for themselves. “She didn’t accept a patronizing interpretation of Islam and believed Islam gave rights to women that Muslim men took away,” he said.

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Ms. Afshar in 2022. The first Iranian-born woman to be appointed to the House of Lords, she held multiple advisory roles with the British government on gender issues and the role of Muslim women in Britain.Credit...via Afshar Dodson family

Haleh Afshar was born in Tehran on May 21, 1944, the eldest of four children in an affluent Iranian family. Her father, Hassan Afshar, was a law professor who taught at Strasbourg University in France and served as the dean of Tehran University’s law school. Her mother, Pouran Khabir, came from a prominent family and campaigned for women’s suffrage in Iran.

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By her account, Ms. Afshar had a privileged upbringing in which, surrounded by nannies and servants, she did little on her own. While attending the prestigious Jeanne d’Arc School for girls in Tehran, she said, “I read ‘Jane Eyre’ and I thought: Well, if you left me on the side of a road, I wouldn’t know which way to turn. I’d better go to this England where they make these tough women.”

She persuaded her parents to send her to Saint Martin’s, a boarding school in Solihull, England, outside Birmingham, where she spent three years. She then attended the University of York, graduating in 1967. She received a doctorate in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge in 1972.

Ms. Afshar returned to Iran for several years, working as a civil servant for the Ministry of Agriculture, a job in which she often traveled to small towns and villages. “I loved talking to the women,” she recalled, “who were not even aware of the Islamic rights they had: the right to property, payment for housework, all kinds of things.”

She also worked as a journalist for Kayhan International, an English-language newspaper, and wrote a gossip column called “Curious,” attending parties as she covered the social life of prominent Iranians.

In 1974, her brother said, Savak, the shah of Iran’s feared secret police, summoned her over her involvement with left-wing intellectual groups. The incident frightened her enough to return to England. There she was reunited with Maurice Dodson, a University of York math professor whom she had met when she was a student. They began dating in 1970 and married in 1974.

Ms. Afshar traveled to Iran with her husband during the Persian New Year in March 1975 and visited the country for the last time in 1977, two years before the Islamic Revolution.

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In England, she revived her academic career at the University of Bradford before joining the University of York.

She was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

Beyond her academic and political life, Ms. Afshar knew how to have a good time, by her brother’s account. When he was a student in Paris (he was two decades younger than his sister), she once accompanied him and his friends to bar. “She knew every single cocktail they served — even the weird ones — and she danced the whole night,” Mr. Afshar said.

She was also a poker enthusiast who, as she recalled in a 2018 interview, once used her card-playing skills to win tickets to a Beatles concert in London. “Largely because I’m smiley and never serious,” she said, explaining her approach to the game. “It’s not a poker face that hides. It’s a poker face that is open.”

In addition to her brother, she is survived by her husband; a son, Ali Afshar Dodson; a daughter, Molly Newton; two other brothers, Kamran and Adam; and two grandchildren.

Fuad El-Hibri, Emergent BioSolutions Founder

 Fuad El-Hibri (b. March 2, 1958, Hildesheim, Germany – d. April 23, 2022, Potomac, Maryland) was a German-American businessman and philanthropist, and founder of Emergent BioSolutions.

Fuad El-Hibri was born in Hildesheim,  Germany.  He spent his childhood equally in Europe and the Middle East before coming to the United States to get an economics degree from Stanford and an MBA from Yale. 

El-Hibri worked most of his career in the telecommunications industry. Between graduate school and working for BioPort and Emergent, he worked abroad, in countries including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and El Salvador.

El-Hibri served as president of Digicel from August 2000 to February 2005. He served as the president of East West Resources Corporation from September 1990 to January 2004.

He was a member of the senior management team of Speywood, LTD. in the United Kingdom and organized and directed the management buyout of Porton Products Ltd. El-Hibri reorganized Porton. He was advisor to the senior management team involved in the oversight of  Porton operations; served as a senior associate and resident project manager at Booz Allen Hamilton, and was a manager of Citicorp in New York City (Mergers and Acquisitions), and in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Operations and Credit).

Beginning in June 1990, El-Hibri was chairman of East West Resources Corporation, a venture capital and financial consulting firm. He served as the chairman of Digicel Holdings from August 2000 to October 2006. He served as executive chairman of the board of Emergent BioDefense Operations Lansing Inc. 

El-Hibri was on the Emergent BioSolutions board of directors. He was both the board chairman and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company from 2004 to 2012. He was the board chairman and CEO of BioPort Corporation from 1998 to 2004. Emergent acquired BioPort in 2004.

El-Hibri's main role as the chairman of Emergent was to develop corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions.

After the 2001 anthrax attacks, some conspiracy theorists posted Internet websites that tried to imply that El-Hibri was connected to Osama Bin Laden and was connected to the anthrax attacks. USA Today interviewed El-Hibri in 2004 for an article about Muslim CEOs of companies helping to fight terrorism, and wrote, "El-Hibri calls the Web sites annoying and jokes that he's lucky to be in the vaccination business so that he can inoculate himself from the pain of accusers who can't be confronted."

One of the Yale University School of Management donor-funded awards, the El-Hibri Award provides first year School of Management students with internship program funding over the summer, seed capital for new businesses for second-year men and women and special funding for those going into early-stage start-up ventures. A group of 14 Yale alumni - entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors - choose the students who receive the awards, which total $100,000.

El-Hibri served on the boards of the United States Chamber of Commerce, International Biomedical Research Alliance, and National Health Museum. He also served on the advisory boards of the Heifetz International Music Institute and Yale Healthcare Conference.

El-Hibri's mother is a German Catholic, and his father is a Lebanese businessman. As a child, he lived in Germany and Lebanon. He became a United States citizen in 1999. He died on April 23, 2022 at Potomac, Maryland from pancreatic cancer.

Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Emir of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates

 Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan 

Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (b. September 7, 1948, Al-Ain, Trucial States [now United Arab Emirates] – d. May 13, 2022) was the President of the United Arab Emirates, the Emir of Abu Dhabi, and the supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces from 2004 to 2022. He was also the Chairman of the Supreme Petroleum Council from the late 1980s.

As the crown prince, Khalifa carried out some aspects of the presidency in a de facto capacity from the late 1990s when his father Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan faced health problems.  He succeeded his father as the emir of Abu Dhabi on November 2, 2004, and the presidency of the United Arab Emirates the following day.

During his reign, he was deemed one of the richest monarchs in the world. He controlled 97.8 billion barrels of oil reserves and was chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages $875 billion in assets, the largest amount managed by a nation's head of state in the world.  Collectively, the Al Nahyan family is believed to hold a fortune of $150 billion. On January 4, 2010, the world's tallest man-made structure, originally known as Burj Dubai, was renamed the Burj Khalifa in his honor, after Abu Dhabi gave Dubai $10 billion to help pay off debts. In 2018, Forbes named Khalifa in its list of the world's most powerful people.  

In January 2014, Khalifa suffered a stroke but was in a stable condition. He then assumed a lower profile in state affairs but retained ceremonial presidential powers. His half-brother Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan carried out public affairs of the state and day-to-day decision-making of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.  Khalifa died on May 13, 2022.

Khalifa was born on September 7, 1948 at Qasr Al-Muwaiji, Al Ain,  in Abu Dhabi (then part of the Trucial States), the eldest son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. He was a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.  

When his father, Zayed, became Emir of Abu Dhabi in 1966, Khalifa was appointed the Ruler's Representative (the mayor) in the Eastern region of Abu Dhabi and Head of the Courts Department in Al Ain. Zayed was the Ruler's Representative in the Eastern Region before he became the Emir of Abu Dhabi. A few months later the position was handed to Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan.  

On February 1, 1969, Khalifa was nominated the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and on the next day he was appointed Head of the Abu Dhabi Department of Defense. In that post, he oversaw the build up of the Abu Dhabi Defense Force, which after 1971 became the core of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces.  

Following the establishment of the United Arab Emirates in 1971, Khalifa assumed several positions in Abu Dhabi: Prime Minister, head of the Abu Dhabi Cabinet (under his father), Minister of Defense, and Minister of Finance. After the reconstruction of the Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Cabinet was replaced by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council,  and Khalifa became the 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (December 23, 1973) and the Chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi (January 20, 1974), under his father.

In May 1976, Khalifa became deputy commander of the UAE Armed Forces under the President. He also became the head of the Supreme Petroleum Council in the late 1980s, and continued in this position until his death in 2022. The post granted him wide powers in energy matters.

Khalifa was the eldest son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Hassa bint Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan.  Khalifa was married to Shamsa bint Suhail Al Mazrouei,  and had eight children: Sultan, Mohammed, Shamma, Salama, Osha, Sheikha, Lateefa, and Mouza.

Khalifa succeeded to the posts of Emir of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on November 3, 2004, replacing his father Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who had died the day before. He had been acting president since his father became ill prior to his passing.

On December 1, 2005, the President announced that half of the members of the Federal National Council (FNC), an assembly that advises the president, would be indirectly elected. However, half of the council's members would still need to be appointed by the leaders of the emirates. The elections were set to take place in December 2006. In 2009, Khalifa was re-elected as President for a second five-year term.

During his presidency in February of 2022, the UAE signed partnership agreements with Israel on tourism and healthcare.

In March 2011, Khalifa sent the United Arab Emirates Air Force to support the military intervention in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi, alongside forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization  (NATO), Qatar, Sweden, and Jordan.  

Khalifa pledged the full support of the UAE to the Bahraini regime in the face of the pro-democracy uprising in 2011. 

Later in 2011, Khalifa was ranked as the world's fourth-wealthiest monarch, with a fortune estimated to be worth $15 billion. In 2013, he commissioned Azzam, the longest motor yacht ever built at 590 ft (180 m) long, with costs between $400–600 million.

In the fall of 2011, the Emirates initiated a program to promote allegiance to Khalifa and other Emirati leaders. The program continues, and encourages not only Emirati nationals, but residents from any nationality to register their appreciation, recognition, and loyalty to the Emirs.

In January 2014, Khalifa suffered a stroke and was reported to have been in a stable condition after undergoing an operation.

The Seychelles' government records show that since 1995 Sheikh Khalifa had spent $2 million buying up more than 66 acres of land on the Seychelles' main island of Mahe, where what was to be his palace was being built. The Seychelles' government received large aid packages from the UAE, most notably a $130 million injection that was used in social service and military aid, which funded patrol boats for the Seychelles' anti-piracy efforts. In 2008, the UAE came to the indebted Seychelles government's aid, with a $30 million injection of funds.

Khalifa paid $500,000 for the 29.8-acre site of his palace in 2005, according to the sales document. A Seychelles planning authority initially rejected the palace's building plans, a decision overturned by President James Michel's cabinet. A month after the start of construction of the palace, the national utility company warned that the site's plans posed threats to the water supply. Joel Morgan, the Seychelles' minister of the environment, said the government did not tender the land because it wanted it to go to Sheikh Khalifa. Morgan said "the letter of the law" might not have been followed in the land sale.

In February 2010, the sewage system set up by Ascon, the company building the palace, for the site's construction workers overflowed, sending rivers of waste through the region, which are home to more than 8000 residents. Local government agencies and officials from Khalifa's office responded quickly to the problem, sending in technical experts and engineers. Government officials concluded that Ascon ignored health and building codes for their workers, and fined the company $81,000. Ascon blamed the incident on "unpredicted weather conditions". Khalifa's presidential office offered to pay $15 million to replace the water-piping system for the mountainside, and Seychelles' government representatives and residents say Ascon has offered to pay roughly $8,000 to each of the 360 households that were affected by the pollution.

Through the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, the UAE supported the Yemeni people in August 2015 with 3,000 tons of food and aid supplies. By August 19, 2015, the foundation had sent Yemen 7,800 tons of food, medicine, and medical supplies.

In April 2016, Khalifa was named in the Panama Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.  Khalifa reportedly owned luxury properties in London worth more than $1.7 billion via shell companies that Mossack Fonseca set up and administers for him in the British Virgin Islands.  

Khalifa died on May 13, 2022.