Ghazala Hashmi is the first Muslim woman of Indian descent to become a Lieutenant Governor in the United States. The 61-year-old beat Republican John Reid in the Virginia lieutenant governor's race. She ran on a campaign that was mostly about opposing the policies of the Trump administration. She is also the first Muslim and the first South Asian American to be a member of the Virginia Senate.
Education qualification
Before getting her PhD in American Literature from Emory University, Hashmi got her Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgia Southern University. Her PhD dissertation, which she finished in 1992 with help from Professor Peter Dowell, was called "In the American Grain and Paterson by William Carlos Williams, and the American Ground."
Hashmi spent approximately 30 years in higher education before becoming a public servant. She worked as a professor at the University of Richmond and then at Reynolds Community College, where she created and ran the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL).
Political career
According to the Washington Post, the travel restriction on numerous Muslim-majority nations during the Trump administration pushed her to get involved in politics and fight for fairness, inclusiveness, and representation in American politics.
About her early life
Ghazala Hashmi was born in 1964 in Hyderabad, India. She grew up in a friendly, traditional Hyderabadi family. She resided with her maternal grandparents in Malakpet. Her grandfather worked for the Andhra Pradesh government in the Finance Department.
Hashmi and her family relocated to the United States when she was four years old. They joined her father, who was studying for a PhD in international affairs in Georgia, according to her official website. Her father and uncle were teachers in the political science department at Georgia Southern University's Marvin Pittman Laboratory School, where she went to school.
