An Afghan-American attorney, Mary Kabir-Seraj Bischoping, has been named deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan and will oversee Washington's diplomacy on Afghanistan under the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the United States State Department.Previously, US engagement on Afghanistan was led by Thomas West, former Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Rina Amiri, who acted as Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights.Bischoping, 33, is a descendant of the Barakzai royal dynasty, which ruled Afghanistan from 1823 to 1978 and is the great-granddaughter of King Amanullah Khan and Queen Soraya Tarzi.
Her grandma was Latifa Kabir Seraj, among Afghanistan's initially female journalists.Bischoping, is her married name, which originates from her German-American spouse.
She was born and raised in California.According to a biography released by the University of Virginia, Bischoping's household fled Afghanistan after the Soviet intrusion in 1979.
Her moms and dads completed their education in Europe before settling in Southern California.Bischoping made her bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2016 and later received her Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Virginia School of Law.
She is fluent in English, Persian and German.Following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Bischoping joined the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department.
In 2023, she was selected Senior Counsel to the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she led Republican-led oversight investigations into the Afghanistan withdrawal and encouraged on local strategy.Prior to her Congressional role, Bischoping functioned as a legal adviser at the State Department, clerked for Judge Kent A.
Jordan on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and worked at significant law firms including Gibson, Dunn - & Crutcher and Willkie Farr - & Gallagher in New York.Her visit to this top-level diplomatic post shows a mix of legal knowledge, policy experience, and an individual understanding of Afghanistan's intricate history-- positioning her to play a crucial function in forming future United States engagement with the region.The post Afghan-American selected to lead US policy on Afghanistan initially appeared on TINS News.