Yenny Wahid
Wahid in 2011
Born
Zannuba Ariffah Chafsoh

(1974-10-29) 29 October 1974 (age 49)
Jombang, East Java, Indonesia
NationalityIndonesian
SpouseDhorir Farisi
Children3
Parents

Zannuba Ariffah Chafsoh, or more popularly known as Yenny Wahid (born 29 October 1974) is an Indonesian Islamic activist, journalist, and politician. She is currently the director of The Wahid Institute, an Islamic research center founded by her father, Abdurrahman Wahid.

Background

She is the second daughter of the late President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid, a granddaughter of Indonesia's first religion minister Wahid Hasyim, and a great-granddaughter of Hasyim Asy'ari, founder of the world's largest Muslim organization Nahdatul Ulama.[1] She obtained her bachelor's degree in design and visual communication from Trisakti University in Jakarta, but upon graduation she went to work as a journalist for Fairfax Media, publisher of Australian newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. As a journalist, she covered news stories from East Timor and Aceh. For her stories in post-referendum East Timor, she and her team won a Walkley Award for journalism.[2][3]

When her father was elected as the country's fourth President, she had to leave her career in journalism in order to assist her father in his new post, with special responsibility for communication. Upon Wahid's impeachment, she went to pursue a master's degree at Harvard Kennedy School as a Mason Fellow.[4] In 2004, upon her return from Boston, she was appointed as the director of the newly founded Wahid Institute, as political communication advisor to the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from 2005 to 2007, a position that she still retains now. She was involved in the National Awakening Party (PKB) as secretary-general.[citation needed]

Greg Barton in The Australian credits her with having played a crucial role in persuading her father of "the extent of military-backed militia violence in East Timor [...] and the culpability of the Indonesian military leadership".[5] According to the Wahid Institute, the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2009, a role in which she remained active as of 2013.[6][7] She is married to Dhohir Farisi.[8]

References

  1. ^ Milovanovic, Selma (12 June 2010). "Following in her father's footsteps - her way". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  2. ^ (in Indonesian) Yenny Wahid's Biography Archived 10 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Graham, Duncan (19 June 2017). "Indonesia's woman to watch". Inside Indonesia. Retrieved 27 June 2017. Wahid reported for Fairfax Press when the Indonesian Army trashed East Timor after locals broke free of Indonesian rule in the UN-supervised 1999 referendum. The team Wahid was part of won a Walkley Award, Australia's highest prize in journalism.
  4. ^ KSG Mason Fellow List 2003 Archived 23 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Australia owes a debt of gratitude to Indonesia's accidental president", Greg Barton, The Australian, 2 January 2010
  6. ^ "About Us". Wahid Institute. Retrieved 27 June 2017. In 2009 she was named as one of the Young global Leader honorees by the World Economic Forum.
  7. ^ "List of 2013 Young Global Leaders Honourees" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  8. ^ "Ten Cow Dowry for Former Indonesian President Gus Dur's Daughter". Jakarta Globe. 15 October 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2009.

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