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World Bank's Riza bemoans media portrayal
'ONE-DIMENSIONAL':
The polyglot World Bank officer has complained that the media's coverage of her liaison with Paul Wolfowitz has failed to highlight her accomplishments
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, WASHINGTON
Sunday, Apr 15, 2007, Page 6
Before she became the subject of intensive news coverage as the companion of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, Shaha Ali Riza was known as a highly educated international bureaucrat who worked on issues related to women and girls in developing countries.
The Libyan-born Riza, a British citizen, earned degrees from the London School of Economics and Oxford University. She had already worked at the World Bank for seven years by 2005, when Wolfowitz, whom she had been seeing for several years, arrived as president.
At the bank, Riza worked with the Middle East and North Africa Social and Economic Development Group, as the senior gender and civil society coordinator in the office of the group's chief economist. She was later appointed the group's senior communications officer.
Friends say she has complained in recent days that she was being portrayed in the news media in a one-dimensional way -- as Wolfowitz's partner or close friend -- not for her accomplishments.
They said she believes she is a vehicle for employees of the bank to get rid of Wolfowitz, with whom they have clashed on policy and style.
On April 9, Riza wrote a memo to the bank committee investigating her transfer to the State Department and an unusually large pay increase.
She maintained that she did not see any conflict of interest and reminded the committee that she had not wanted to leave the bank for the State Department.
Riza made no mention in the memo of her pay raises, which increased her salary by more than US$60,000 to US$193,590.
The World Bank's staff association has questioned the propriety of the increase.
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