100 Notable alumni of
SOAS, University of London
Updated:
The SOAS, University of London is 287th in the world, 101st in Europe, and 23rd in the United Kingdom by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the SOAS, University of London sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Aung San Suu Kyi
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- In 1987 studied Burmese literature
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianhuman rights activist
- Biography
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Aung San Suu Kyi, sometimes abbreviated to Suu Kyi, is a Burmese politician who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021. She has served as the general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) since the party's founding in 1988 and was registered as its chairperson while it was a legal party from 2011 to 2023. She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s.
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Jemima Goldsmith
- Occupations
- journalistfilm producerscreenwriterwritertelevision producer
- Biography
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Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith, sometimes known professionally as Jemima Khan Goldsmith, is an English journalist and screenwriter. She is the founder of Instinct Productions, a television production company. As a journalist, she was an associate editor for the British political and cultural magazine The New Statesman and European editor-at-large for the American magazine Vanity Fair.
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Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Studied in 2002-2003
- Occupations
- aristocrat
- Biography
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Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway is a member of the Norwegian royal family. She is married to Crown Prince Haakon, the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne.
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Paul Robeson
- Occupations
- politiciansingerstage actorwriterlawyer
- Biography
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Paul Leroy Robeson was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances.
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Bülent Ecevit
- Occupations
- politicianjournalistdiplomatpoetwriter
- Biography
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Mustafa Bülent Ecevit was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in 1974, 1977, 1978–1979, and 1999–2002. Ecevit was chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP) between 1972 and 1980, and in 1987 he became chairman of the Democratic Left Party (DSP).
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Varun Gandhi
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Feroze Varun Gandhi is an Indian politician who has been a three time Member of Parliament for Lok Sabha from the Pilibhit constituency. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and was inducted into Rajnath Singh's team in March 2012 as General Secretary. He belongs to the Nehru–Gandhi family, which has occupied a prominent place in the politics of India since a time before the country's independence in 1947.
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Ekaterina Mizulina
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Studied in 2004
- Occupations
- public figure
- Biography
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Ekaterina Mikhailovna Mizulina is a Russian public figure, executive director of the National Center for Children's Assistance (2017–2020), member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, head of the Safe Internet League. She is the daughter of Senator Yelena Mizulina.
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Maajid Nawaz
- Occupations
- human rights activistpolitical activistessayistpoliticianwriter
- Biography
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Maajid Usman Nawaz is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of the think tank Quilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays. Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, to a British Pakistani family, Nawaz is a former member of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. His membership led to his December 2001 arrest in Egypt, where he remained imprisoned until 2006. While there, he read books about human rights and made contact with Amnesty International who adopted him as a prisoner of conscience. He left Hizb-ut-Tahrir in 2007, renounced his Islamist past, and called for a secular Islam. Later, Nawaz co-founded Quilliam with former Islamists, including Ed Husain.
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David Lammy
- Occupations
- politicianjuristlawyer
- Biography
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David Lindon Lammy is a British politician who has served as Foreign Secretary since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenham since 2000. Lammy previously held various junior ministerial positions under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown between 2002 and 2010.
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Bernard Lewis
- Occupations
- orientalistuniversity teacherhistorian
- Biography
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Bernard Lewis, FBA was a British-American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
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Carter Page
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Carter William Page is an American petroleum industry consultant and a former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaign. Page is the founder and managing partner of Global Energy Capital, a one-man investment fund and consulting firm specializing in the Russian and Central Asian oil and gas business.
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Romila Thapar
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterhistorianprofessor
- Biography
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Romila Thapar is an Indian historian. Her principal area of study is ancient India, a field in which she is pre-eminent. Thapar is a Professor of Ancient History, Emerita, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
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Antony Flew
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Antony Garrard Newton Flew was an English philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught philosophy at the universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele, and Reading in the United Kingdom, and at York University in Toronto, Canada.
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Konon Molody
- Occupations
- spy
- Biography
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Konon Trofimovich Molody was a Soviet intelligence officer, known in the West as Gordon Arnold Lonsdale. Posing as a Canadian businessman during the Cold War, he was a non-official (illegal) KGB intelligence agent and the mastermind of the Portland spy ring, which operated in Britain from 1953 until 1961.
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Orde Wingate
- Occupations
- army officer
- Biography
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Major General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO & Two Bars was a senior British Army officer known for his creation of the Chindit deep-penetration missions in Japanese-held territory during the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.
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Hsieh Che-ching
- Occupations
- historianart historian
- Biography
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Hsieh Che-ching is a Taiwanese cultural/art history expert, broadcaster and travel writer.
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Fatima Bhutto
- Occupations
- writerjournalistpoet
- Biography
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Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani writer and columnist. Born in Kabul, she is the daughter of politician Murtaza Bhutto, sister of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr, niece of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and granddaughter of former Prime Minister and President of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. She was raised in Syria and Karachi, and received her bachelor's degree from Barnard College, followed by a master's degree from the SOAS University of London.
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Budiman Sudjatmiko
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Budiman Sudjatmiko is an Indonesian activist, politician and actor. He is known for co-authoring the Indonesian Village Law and founding the Innovators 4.0 Movement. He is also known as a reform activist for his involvement in founding and leading the People's Democratic Party (PRD), and infamously, reading out the PRD manifesto in the courtroom. His book, Anak-Anak Revolusi, became one of the sources of information about the world of activism during the New Order era.
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Dom Joly
- Occupations
- writertelevision presentertelevision directorfilm actorcomedian
- Biography
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Dominic John Romulus Joly is an English comedian and writer. He is best known as the star of Trigger Happy TV (2000–2003), a hidden camera prank show that was broadcast in over 70 countries.
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Jung Chang
- Occupations
- autobiographerhistorianlinguistpoetbiographer
- Biography
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Jung Chang CBE is a Chinese-born British author. She is best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide but banned in the People's Republic of China. Her 832-page biography of Mao Zedong, Mao: The Unknown Story, written with her husband, the Irish historian Jon Halliday, was published in June 2005.
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Jason Chan Chi-san
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actortelevision presenteractor
- Biography
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Jason Chan is a Hongkongese actor and television presenter. He started off at TVB hosting a variety of English Pearl lifestyle shows, which required the use of his proficiency in various languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin, French, and Latin.
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Stella Assange
- Occupations
- lawyerhuman rights activist
- Biography
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Stella Assange is a Swedish-Spanish lawyer. Throughout her career, she has been an international advocate for human rights, most prominently in the case of her husband, Julian Assange. She changed her name first to Stella Moris in 2012 and later to Stella Moris-Smith Robertson.
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Timothy Winter
- Occupations
- Islamicist
- Biography
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Timothy John Winter, also known as Abdal Hakim Murad, is an English academic, theologian and Islamic scholar who is a proponent of Islamic neo-traditionalism. His work includes publications on Islamic theology, modernity, and Anglo-Muslim relations, and he has translated several Islamic texts.
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John Evans Atta Mills
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianeconomistlawyer
- Biography
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John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as the 11th president of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the governing party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 Ghanaian presidential election. He was previously the third vice president from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and he contested unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was the first Ghanaian head of state to die in office.
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Francesca Albanese
- Occupations
- international law scholar
- Biography
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Francesca P. Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. On 1 May 2022, she was appointed United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term. She is the first woman to hold the position.
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Zeinab Badawi
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- 1988-1989 graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- radio personalitywriternews presenterjournalist
- Biography
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Zeinab Badawi is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News (later known as ITV News at 5:30), and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow from 1989 to 1998 before joining BBC News. Badawi was the presenter of World News Today broadcast on both BBC Four and BBC World News, and Reporters, a weekly showcase of reports from the BBC. In 2021, Badawi was appointed as president of SOAS University of London.
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Mirza Tahir Ahmad
- Occupations
- writerKhalifa
- Biography
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Mirza Tahir Ahmad was the fourth caliph (Arabic: خليفة المسيح الرابع, khalīfatul masīh al-rābi) and the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He was elected as the fourth successor of the founder of the community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He was elected on 10 June 1982, the day after the death of his predecessor, Mirza Nasir Ahmad.
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Abdel Bari Atwan
- Occupations
- translatoreditorwriterjournalistlinguist
- Biography
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Abdel Bari Atwan is an Egyptian-born British journalist and the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm, an Arab world digital news and opinion website. Previously he was the editor-in-chief of the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi from the founding of the paper in 1989 until July 2013.
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Martin Lings
- Occupations
- philosopherhistorianpoetwriteruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Martin Lings, also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon and an authority on the work of William Shakespeare, he is best known as the author of Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, first published in 1983 and still in print.
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Freya Madeline Stark
- Occupations
- travel writeressayistphotographermountaineerexplorer
- Biography
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Dame Freya Madeline Stark DBE was a British-Italian explorer and travel writer. She wrote more than two dozen books on her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan as well as several autobiographical works and essays. She was one of the first non-Arabs known to travel through the southern Arabian Desert in modern times.
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David Wilson
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
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David Clive Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn, KT, GCMG, FRSE is a retired British administrator, diplomat and Sinologist. He was the penultimate Commander-in-Chief and 27th Governor of Hong Kong (from 1987 to 1992). He served as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the British Monarch's representative to the Assembly, in 2010 and 2011. He is also one of two living former governors of Hong Kong, alongside Chris Patten. He retired from the House of Lords on 12 February 2021 after sitting as a crossbencher for over 28 years.
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Asif Nazrul
- Years
- 1966-.. (age 59)
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Mohammad Nazrul Islam, better known as Asif Nazrul, is a Bangladeshi writer, novelist, columnist, political commentator and a professor of law at the University of Dhaka. He was appointed an adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh in August 2024. He is responsible for the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment.
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Ehsan Yarshater
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Ehsan Yarshater was an Iranian historian and linguist who specialized in Iranology. He was the founder and director of the Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Columbia University.
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Salahuddin of Selangor
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj was the Sultan of Selangor from 1960, and the eleventh Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia) from 1999, until his death in 2001.
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Swapan Dasgupta
- Occupations
- politicianjournalistcolumnist
- Biography
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Swapan Dasgupta is an Indian journalist and politician. He is influential within the Indian right wing, writing columns for leading English dailies espousing Hindu nationalism. He was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. In 2015, Dasgupta was conferred with the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to literature and education.
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Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
- Years
- 1961-.. (age 64)
- Occupations
- actorscreenwritercommentatorLamafilm director
- Biography
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Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, also known as Khyentse Norbu, is a Bhutanese lama, filmmaker, and writer. His five major films are The Cup (1999), Travellers and Magicians (2003), Vara: A Blessing (2013), Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (2017), and Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (2019). He is the author of several published books such as What Makes You Not a Buddhist (2007), Not For Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices (2012), The Guru Drinks Bourbon? (2016), Living is Dying (2020), and several non-fiction works on Tibetan Buddhism for free distribution such as Introduction to the Middle Way: Chandrakirti’s Madhyamaka with Commentary (2003) and Buddha Nature: Mahayana-Uttaratantra-Shastra with Commentary (2007). He has also written an autobiography in process entitled Mugwort Born. Many of his teachings are available on the Siddhartha’s Intent YouTube channel.
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Iqra Choudhary
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Iqra Choudhary or Iqra Hasan is an Indian politician. She is the member of Lok Sabha from Kairana Lok Sabha constituency since 4 June 2024. She is a member of the Samajwadi Party.
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Chen I-hsin
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Graduated with doctorate
- Graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Chen I-hsin or Charles Chen is a Taiwanese politician.
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Har Dayal
- Occupations
- Indologistpoliticianrevolutionary
- Biography
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Lala Rudra Dayal Mathur was an Indian nationalist revolutionary and freedom fighter. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians living in Canada and the U.S. in their campaign against British rule in India during the First World War.
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Femi Fani-Kayode
- Occupations
- politicianpoetlawyeressayist
- Biography
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David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode is a Nigerian politician, author and lawyer.
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Frank Dikötter
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterhistorianprofessor
- Biography
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Frank Dikötter is a Dutch historian who specialises in modern China. Dikötter has been Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong since 2006. In Patient Zero (2003) and Narcotic Culture (2004), Dikötter argued that the impact of the prohibition of opium on the Chinese people led to greater harm than the effects of the drug itself. Dikötter is the author of The People's Trilogy, which consists of Mao's Great Famine (2010), The Tragedy of Liberation (2013), and The Cultural Revolution (2016), providing an overview of Communist-led China.
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Hammad Azhar
- Years
- 1981-.. (age 44)
- Occupations
- politicianbarrister
- Biography
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Muhammad Hammad Azhar is a Pakistani politician from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He was elected from NA-126 (Lahore-IV) in 2018 Pakistani general election and remained a member of National Assembly of Pakistan between August 2018 to January 2023. He served in various ministerial positions in Imran Khan ministry between 2018 and April 2022. He served as Energy Minister of Pakistan and Finance Minister of Pakistan between 16 April 2021 to 3 April 2022 and 29 March 2021 to 16 April 2021 respectively.
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Tessy Antony de Nassau
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- soldieraristocrathumanitarianbusinesspersonexecutive
- Biography
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Tessy Antony de Nassau, formerly Princess Tessy of Luxembourg, is a Luxembourgish businesswoman and non-profit executive. She is a former member of the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg as the ex-wife of Prince Louis of Luxembourg, the third son of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. She married Prince Louis in 2006 and had two sons. In January 2017, they announced their separation and intent to divorce, with divorce proceedings occurring in London. Their divorce was finalized on 4 April 2019. Upon their divorce, Antony de Nassau lost her titles of princess of Luxembourg, Bourbon-Parma, and of Nassau.
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Nasser Khalili
- Occupations
- businesspersonphilanthropistentrepreneurart historianart collector
- Biography
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Sir Nasser David Khalili KCSS is a British scholar, collector, and philanthropist based in London. Born in Iran and educated at Queens College, City University of New York and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, he is a naturalised British citizen.
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Achim Steiner
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Achim Steiner is a Brazilian-German environmentalist who currently serves as the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and vice-chair of United Nations Sustainable Development Group.
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Hüseyin Çelik
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Hüseyin Çelik is a Turkish former Minister of National Education of Turkey and member of parliament for Van for the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
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Frank Furedi
- Occupations
- university teachersociologist
- Biography
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Frank Furedi is a Hungarian-Canadian academic and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent. He is well known for his work on sociology of fear, education, therapy culture, sociology of knowledge, and what he calls "paranoid parenting".
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Wang Gungwu
- Occupations
- historiansinologist
- Biography
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Wang Gungwu, AO, CBE is an Australian historian, sinologist, and writer specialising in the history of China and Southeast Asia. He has studied and written about the Chinese diaspora, but he has objected to the use of the word diaspora to describe the migration of Chinese from China because both it mistakenly implies that all overseas Chinese are the same and has been used to perpetuate fears of a "Chinese threat", under the control of the Chinese government. An expert on the Chinese tianxia ("all under heaven") concept, he was the first to suggest its application to the contemporary world as an American Tianxia.
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Emma Dabiri
- Occupations
- radio personalitywriteracademictelevision presenter
- Biography
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Emma Dabiri FRSL is an Irish writer and broadcaster. Her debut book, Don't Touch My Hair, was published in 2019. Her 2021 book, What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition, became an international bestseller. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
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Gita Sahgal
- Occupations
- authorhuman rights activistjournalistfilm producer
- Biography
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Gita Sahgal is a British writer, journalist, film director, women rights activist and human rights activist, whose work focusses on the issues of feminism, fundamentalism and racism.
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Samia Nkrumah
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Graduated with master's degree in Arabic
- Occupations
- journalistpolitician
- Biography
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Honourable Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah is a Ghanaian politician and former chairperson of the Convention People's Party (CPP) making her the first woman to ever head a major political party in Ghana. In the 2008 parliamentary election, she won the Jomoro constituency seat on her first attempt. She is the daughter of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana.
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Ed Husain
- Occupations
- autobiographer
- Biography
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Ed Husain is a British author and a professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University. As a political advisor he has worked with leaders and governments across the world. Husain is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) focused on U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East generally, and specifically at the intersection of Arab-Israeli relations after the Abraham Accords, the geopolitical interplay of Arab Gulf states, China-Muslim world dynamics, and Islamist terrorism. As a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, he teaches classes on global security, Arab-Israeli peace, and the shared intellectual roots of the West and Islam.
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Andrew Bertie
- Occupations
- friar
- Biography
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Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie was Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 1988 until his death in 2008.
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Pavin Chachavalpongpun
- Occupations
- writerhistoriandiplomat
- Biography
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Pavin Chachavalpongpun is a Thai scholar notable for his criticism of the Thai monarchy. He currently resides in Japan as a political exile.
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Catherine West
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Catherine Elizabeth West is an Australian-born British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, previously Hornsey and Wood Green, since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Indo-Pacific since 2024.
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Felix Finkbeiner
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- In 2018 studied international relations
- Occupations
- conservationistnon-fiction writerblogger
- Biography
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Felix Finkbeiner is a German environmentalist and the founder of the international tree-planting and environmental advocacy organization Plant-for-the-Planet.
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Ivan van Sertima
- Occupations
- university teacherhistorianjournalistanthropologistlinguist
- Biography
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Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima was a Guyanese-born British associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States.
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Gamal Nkrumah
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Graduated with doctorate in political science
- Occupations
- writerjournalisteditor
- Biography
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Gamal Gorkeh Nkrumah is a Ghanaian journalist, a Pan-Africanist and an editor of Al Ahram Weekly newspaper. He is the eldest son of the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and his Egyptian wife Fathia Nkrumah.
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Ambeth Ocampo
- Occupations
- historian
- Biography
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Ambeth R. Ocampo OL KGOR OMC OAL is a Filipino public historian, academic, cultural administrator, journalist, author, and independent curator. He is best known for his definitive writings about Philippines' national hero José Rizal and on topics in Philippine history and Philippine art through Looking Back, his bi-weekly editorial page column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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Karen Yu
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Karen Yu is a Taiwanese politician. She served a single term on the Legislative Yuan as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party.
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Nasri Atallah
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Nasri Atallah is a British-Lebanese author, award-winning producer, television host and media entrepreneur. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Esquire Middle East, one of the co-founders of Last Floor Productions and a former contributing writer at GQ Middle East.
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Zairil Khir Johari
- Years
- 1982-.. (age 43)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Zairil Khir Johari is a Malaysian politician who has served as Member of the Penang State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) state administration under Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and Member of the Penang State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Tanjong Bunga since May 2018. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bukit Bendera from May 2013 to May 2018. He is a member of the Democratic Action Party, a component party of the PH coalition. In DAP, he served as the Assistant National Publicity Secretary from September 2013 to March 2022, State Vice Chairman of Penang since December 2013 and Parliamentary Spokesperson of Education, Science and Technology. He is the son of Khir Johari, former federal minister and prominent politician from Barisan Nasional (BN) and Alliance.
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Hechmi Hamdi
- Occupations
- politicianwriterjournalistbusinessperson
- Biography
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Mohamed Hechmi Hamdi, also spelled Mohamed el Hachmi El-Hamdi, Hechmi Haamdi, or Hachmi Hamdi is a Tunisian journalist, media entrepreneur and politician, who lives in London. He is founder and owner of the oppositional Al Mustakillah TV channel. After the Tunisian Revolution in 2011 he founded the "Popular Petition" party later renamed to Current of Love.
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Gold Panda
- Occupations
- composerrecord producerdisc jockey
- Biography
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Derwin Schlecker, professionally known as Gold Panda, is an English electronic record producer and songwriter.
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Moussa Ibrahim
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Moussa Ibrahim is a Libyan political figure who rose to international attention in 2011 as Muammar Gaddafi's Information Minister and official spokesman, serving in this role until the government was toppled the same year in the Libyan Civil War. Ibrahim held frequent press conferences in the course of the war, denouncing rebel forces and the NATO-led military intervention, often in defiant and impassioned tones. His status and whereabouts remained unknown following the Battle of Tripoli in which the Gaddafi government was overthrown, although there were several claims and subsequent refutations of his capture. Eventually, in late 2014, it was discovered he was in Egypt before he was deported and fled to Serbia. On 12 January 2015 Moussa Ibrahim spoke publicly by video link at a political event hosted at the Committee Rooms Houses of Parliament, Westminster, London from an undisclosed location, also the Director of Private Security Company.
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Suki Kim
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Studied in 1992
- Occupations
- writerjournalistteacher
- Biography
-
Suki Kim is a Korean American journalist and writer. She is the author of two books: the award-winning novel The Interpreter and a book of investigative journalism, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite. Kim is the only writer ever to have lived undercover in North Korea to conduct immersive journalism. Kim is currently a contributing editor at The New Republic.
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Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah
- Occupations
- writerpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
-
Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah was a Bengali Pakistani politician, diplomat and author. She was the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD from the University of London. She was Pakistan's ambassador to Morocco from 1964 to 1967, and a delegate to the United Nations, calling for a more gender-inclusive language in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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Ysabelle Lacamp
- Occupations
- novelistsingeractor
- Biography
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Ysabelle Lacamp was a French novelist, singer and actress.
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Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh
- Occupations
- geographerhistorianwriter
- Biography
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Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh is an Iranian political scientist and historian. He is a prominent Iranologist, geopolitics researcher, historian and political scientist. He worked in Iranian universities as a geopolitics professor from 1999 to 2014, namely Tarbiat Modares University, University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University. He was fired from Tarbiat Modares University in 2014 by Revolutionary Guard Officer Sardar Yahya Rahim Safavi for expressing views in opposition to the Islamic regime. He is an advisor of the United Nations University.
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Louise Perry
- Years
- 1992-.. (age 33)
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Louise Perry is a British journalist, author and podcast host. She is a features writer for the Daily Mail and a columnist at the New Statesman.
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Mia Kang
- Occupations
- model
- Biography
-
Mia Kang is a British-Swiss fashion model, Muay Thai fighter, body confidence advocate, and television host based in New York City. Kang grew up in Hong Kong and was bullied as a young girl for being overweight. She halved her weight at the age of 13 and was soon scouted as a model. Kang modeled across Asia and Europe through her high school and college years. She got a master's degree in finance and financial law in England, and left modeling to work as a commodities trader, before returning to modeling in New York City and winning the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model search and being named a 2017 Rookie.
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Michael Cook
- Years
- 1940-.. (age 85)
- Occupations
- historianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Michael Allan Cook FBA is a British historian and scholar of Islamic history. Cook is the general editor of The New Cambridge History of Islam.
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Ghida Fakhry
- Occupations
- journalisttelevision presenter
- Biography
-
Ghida Fakhry is a Lebanese-British journalist. She was a lead anchor for the global news channel Al Jazeera English at its launch in Washington D.C., and was later one of the primary anchors at the network's headquarters in Doha. She was also the host of Witness, a documentary program.
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Alizeh Agnihotri
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
-
Alizeh Agnihotri is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. Born into the Khan family, she is the daughter of actor Atul Agnihotri and producer Alvira Khan Agnihotri. She made her acting debut as a child, appearing in Hello (2008), directed by her father. As an adult, she played the lead role in the 2023 film Farrey, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.
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Navin Chawla
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- In 1967 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in study of history
- Occupations
- civil servant
- Biography
-
Navin Chawla was an Indian civil servant and writer, who served as 16th Chief Election Commissioner of India. Four phases (out of five) of the Indian general election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, were executed under his supervision in April and May 2009.
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Emma McCune
- Occupations
- activisthumanitarian
- Biography
-
Emma McCune was a British foreign aid worker in Sudan who married then-guerrilla leader Riek Machar. She was killed when hit by a matatu in Kenya whilst expecting her first child.
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Stefano Lentini
- Occupations
- composersingersongwriter
- Biography
-
Stefano Lentini is a music composer based in Rome, Italy. He has composed and produced music extensively for film, television and theatre, working in a large variety of genres.
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Kamal Salibi
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterhistorianarchaeologist
- Biography
-
Kamal Suleiman Salibi was a Lebanese historian, professor of history at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the founding Director (later Honorary President) of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies in Amman, Jordan..
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Arthur Llewellyn Basham
- Occupations
- historianauthor
- Biography
-
Arthur Llewellyn Basham FAHA was a noted historian, Indologist and author of a number of books. As a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in the 1950s and the 1960s, he taught a number of famous historians of India, including professors Ram Sharan Sharma, Romila Thapar, and V. S. Pathak and Thomas R. Trautmann and David Lorenzen.
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Inger Andersen
- Occupations
- environmentalisteconomistUnited Nations official
- Biography
-
Inger Andersen is a Danish economist and environmentalist. In February 2019, she was appointed as the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
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Edith Penrose
- Occupations
- university teachereconomist
- Biography
-
Edith Elura Tilton Penrose was an American-born British economist whose best known work is The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, which describes the ways which firms grow and how fast they do. Writing in The Independent, the economist Sir Alec Cairncross stated that the book brought Dr. Penrose "instant recognition as a creative thinker, and its importance to the analysis of the job of management has been increasingly realized".
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M. K. Asante
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directorrapperfilm producer
- Biography
-
M. K. Asante is an American author, filmmaker, songwriter, recording artist, and professor. He is the author of the 2013 best-selling memoir Buck: A Memoir and the 2024 memoir Nephew: A Memoir in Four-Part Harmony.
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Ananda Devi
- Occupations
- short story writerwriterpoetnovelist
- Biography
-
Ananda Devi Nirsimloo-Anenden, also known as Ananda Devi, is a Mauritian author writing mainly in French. She is the 2024 recipient of the Neustadt Prize, known as the "American Nobel."
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Peter Parker
- Years
- 1924-2002 (aged 78)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
-
Sir Peter Parker KBE LVO was a British businessman and chairman of the British Railways Board from 1976 to 1983.
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Hollie McNish
- Occupations
- rapperpoetlecturer
- Biography
-
Hollie McNish is a poet and author based between Cambridge and Glasgow. She has published four collections of poetry: Papers, Cherry Pie (2015), Why I Ride (2015), Plum (2017) and one poetic memoir on politics and parenthood, Nobody Told Me (2016), of which the Scotsman suggested “The world needs this book...and so does every new parent” and for which she won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. The latter has been translated into German, French and Spanish. McNish's sixth publication - a second cross-genre collection of poetry, memoir and short stories - Slug, and other things I've been told to hate, was published in May 2021 with Hachette with a further collection Lobster, due to come out in 2024, also with Hachette. In 2016, she co-wrote a play with fellow poet Sabrina Mahfouz, Offside, relating the history of British women in football. This was published as a book in 2017.
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Petra Stienen
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Studied in 1990-1991
- Occupations
- columnistarabistdiplomatpolitician
- Biography
-
Petra Stienen is a Dutch human rights advocate with more than thirty years’ experience in diplomacy, international relations, civil society, social entrepreneurship and politics.
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Andrew Mango
- Occupations
- opinion journalistjournalisthistorianhistorian of Modern Agebiographer
- Biography
-
Andrew James Alexander Mango was a British BBC employee and author.
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Jonathan Cook
- Occupations
- journalistopinion journalist
- Biography
-
Jonathan Cook, born circa 1965, is a British writer and a freelance journalist formerly based in Nazareth, Israel, who writes about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He writes a regular column for The National of Abu Dhabi and Middle East Eye.
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Adriano Maleiane
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- In 1998 graduated with master's degree in financial economics
- Occupations
- politicianeconomistcivil servant
- Biography
-
Adriano Afonso Maleiane is a Mozambican economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Mozambique from 3 March 2022 to 15 January 2025.
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Ajmal Masroor
- Occupations
- television presenterpolitician
- Biography
-
Ajmal Masroor is a Bangladeshi-born British imam, broadcaster and politician. He is well known for being a television presenter on political discussions and on Muslim channels.
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Luísa Diogo
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
-
Luísa Dias Diogo is a Mozambican politician who served as Prime Minister of Mozambique from February 2004 to January 2010. She replaced Pascoal Mocumbi, who had been prime minister for the previous nine years. Before becoming prime minister, she was Minister of Planning and Finance, and she continued to hold that post until February 2005.
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Akbar S. Ahmed
- Occupations
- filmmakeruniversity teacherwriterdiplomatanthropologist
- Biography
-
Akbar Salahuddin Ahmed, is a Pakistani-American academic, author, poet, playwright, filmmaker and former diplomat. He currently is a professor of International Relations and holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, School of International Service in Washington, D.C. Akbar Ahmed served as the Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland. He currently is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
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Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera
- Years
- 1974-.. (age 51)
- Occupations
- ʿālim
- Biography
-
Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera is a Sunni Islamic scholar, author, and founder of Whitethread Institute and Zamzam Academy. He authored Fiqh al-Imam and Healthy Muslim Marriage. He was featured in the 2020 edition of The 500 Most Influential Muslims compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre.
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Dharma Vira
- Occupations
- civil servant
- Biography
-
Dharma Vira was an Indian civil servant and politician who served as the governor of Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal and Karnataka. Vira also served as a Cabinet Secretary of the Government of India.
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Aaron Mike Oquaye
- Enrolled in the SOAS, University of London
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in law
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianlawyerdiplomat
- Biography
-
Aaron Mike Oquaye is a Ghanaian barrister and politician who served as the sixth Speaker of Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana from 2017 to 2021. An academic, diplomat and Baptist minister, he previously held the cabinet ministerial portfolios for energy and communication and was also the High Commissioner of Ghana to India (2002–04) in the Kufuor administration.
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Nur Masalha
- Occupations
- historianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Nur ad-Din Masalha, commonly known as Nur Masalha, is a Palestinian writer, historian, and academic. His work focuses on the history, politics, and theology of Palestine, including themes such as the Palestinian Nakba, Zionism, and liberation theology.
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Paul Madden
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
-
Paul Damian Madden CMG FRGS is a retired British diplomat, who was High Commissioner to Singapore and to Australia, and Ambassador to Japan between 2017 and 2021.
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Majid Jafar
- Years
- 1976-.. (age 49)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
-
Majid Hamid Jafar is an Emirati businessman of Iraqi descent. He is the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, vice-chairman of the Crescent Group, and managing director of Dana Gas.
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Andrew Mwenda
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
-
Andrew Mwenda is a Ugandan print, radio and television journalist, and the founder and owner of The Independent, a current affairs newsmagazine. He was previously the political editor of The Daily Monitor, a Ugandan newspaper, and was the presenter of Andrew Mwenda Live on KFM Radio in Kampala, Uganda's capital city.
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Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
-
Michael Hastings Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme, GCMG is a British politician and former diplomat. He sits as a Crossbench member of the House of Lords, and previously served as Ambassador to France and Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
