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Yenny Wahid
Yenny Zannuba A. C. Wahid - World Economic Forum on East Asia 2011.jpg
Wahid in 2011
Born
Zannuba Ariffah Chafsoh

(1974-10-29) 29 October 1974 (age 50)
Jombang, East Java, Indonesia
Nationality Indonesian
Alma mater Trisakti University
Harvard Kennedy School
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • political activist
Organization The Wahid Institute
Political party PKB
PKBIB (formerly)
Spouse(s) Dhorir Farisi
Children 3
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.

Early life and education

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. She obtained her bachelor's degree in design and visual communication from Trisakti University in Jakarta.

Journalism career

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.

Advocacy career

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. 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.

Recognition

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". 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. She is married to Dhohir Farisi.

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