Assad Press Aide Attending New School’s GPIA Program

Published
Sheherazad Jaafari served three months as a press aide for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (The Daily Mail)

Sheherazad Jaafari, the former press aide for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is currently enrolled at The New School for Public Engagement’s Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs, as revealed by multiple news sources this week.

Jaafari, 22, had planned to attend Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, having been accepted there this spring. But after backlash from Columbia’s student community due to her links with the Assad regime, Jaafari chose not to attend the school in order “to avoid being harassed,” as she told Columbia’s Communiqué magazine in September.

“I am not willing to comment on any of this craziness,” Jaafari wrote in an email to the Free Press when asked to comment on the media attention surrounding her enrollment at The New School.

New School spokesperson Sam Biederman declined to comment on Jaafari’s enrollment at The New School, but told Buzzfeed that the university “respect[s] the privacy of our students,” adding that “any admissions decisions are based on merit.”

Rashad al-Dabbagh, a spokesperson for the Syrian American Council — a grassroots organization based in Illinois that opposes the Assad regime — told Communiqué that “any institution [Jaafari] enrolls in would be indirectly complicit in supporting the [Assad] regime.”

 

 

Categorized as News

7 comments

  1. Hello, Neat post. There is an issue with your website in web explorer, would check this?
    IE still is the marketplace chief and a huge component of other folks will omit your fantastic writing because of this problem.

  2. It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate
    to this brilliant blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for
    book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
    I look forward to new updates and will talk about this website with my Facebook group.
    Talk soon!

  3. I’m curious to find out what blog system you happen to be utilizing?
    I’m experiencing some small security issues with my
    latest website and I would like to find something more
    secure. Do you have any solutions?

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *