FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
Lawyer, writer and women’s rights advocate Rafia Zakaria will present a lecture, “Drones and Terrorism: The Ultimate Miscalculation,” on Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. in the Robinson Teaching Theatre in Weyerhaeuser Hall at Whitworth University.
“Ms. Zakaria offers a unique, first-hand perspective on U.S.-Pakistani relations,” Megan Hershey, assistant professor of political science at Whitworth, said in a press release.
Zakaria is the first Pakistani American woman to serve as the director of Amnesty International USA. She also founded the Muslim Women’s Legal Defense Fund for the Muslim Alliance of Indiana/The Julian Center Shelter, which represents victims of domestic violence. In addition to being a lawyer, Zakaria is a columnist for Pakistan’s largest English newspaper Dawn.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
