Indian-origin Muslim woman Ghazala Hashmi wins Virginia Lt Governor race in historic first | 5 points

As per her website, Ghazala Hashmi is the first Muslim and the first South Asian American to serve in the Virginia Senate.

Hashmi moved to US when she was four

Born in 1964 in Hyderabad, India, Ghazala Hashmi grew up in a close-knit Hyderabadi household to Tanveer and Zia Hashmi. During her early years, she lived in Malakpet with her maternal grandparents. Her grandfather worked in the Finance Department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

When Hashmi was four years old, her family moved to the United States, joining her father, who was then pursuing a PhD in international relations in Georgia, as per her website. She attended the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School at Georgia Southern University, where both her father and uncle taught in the political science department.

Hashmi’s education

Hashmi went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgia Southern University and later completed her PhD in American Literature at Emory University. Her 1992 dissertation, titled “In the American Grain and Paterson by William Carlos Williams, and the American Ground,” was supervised by Professor Peter Dowell.

Career as a professor

Before stepping into politics, Hashmi dedicated nearly three decades to academia. She taught at the University of Richmond and later at Reynolds Community College, where she also founded and led the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL),

Why Ghazala Hashmi entered politics

Ghazala Hashmi’s decision to enter politics was deeply influenced by Donald Trump’s travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries, which motivated her to represent voices of inclusion and equality in American governance, as per The Washington Post.