The Weidenfeld Scholars

Farida obtained an MSt in Middle Eastern Studies as a Weidenfeld Scholar in 2011. She obtained her BA in Political Science and History  from the American University in Cairo in 2009, graduating summa cum laude. She has spent the last year working as Project Officer of a joint project between the Equal Opportunities Unit of Egypt’s Ministry of Finance and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) where she conducted research, documentation and organisation of a Gender Budgeting project. She is particularly interested in the modern history of the Middle East and Egypt and wants to focus her studies and subsequent work on the state of her country’s education system. To that end, she plans to ‘explore the origins of state-sponsored formal education so as to better understand its structures, mechanisms and the ways to ameliorate it’. Post-graduation, Farida sees herself working in the field of education, which, she believes ‘affects all other segments of society [and] is the cornerstone of any reform project.