WASHINGTON, 31 October 2004 — Ferial Masry wants to be the first Saudi-born woman to hold political office in the United States, and she hopes that news of her attempt to win a seat in California’s State Assembly will encourage democratic reforms in her native country.
Masry, a moderate Democrat, however, is trying to do so in a rather conservative area of southern California — where Democrats rarely prevail.
Since Masry qualified as a write-in candidate last March, she has appeared on nationally televised news broadcasts and been the subject of a disproportionate number of news stories, considering the obscurity of the race.
If elected, her position will have virtually no influence on the topics of this presidential election season, but that has not kept the subject of Iraq or her feelings about US relations with the Middle East from coming up on the campaign trail.
Masry, whose 24-year-old son has served in Iraq as a civil affairs officer in the US military, opposes the war. At the same time, she believes her candidacy can help bridge the two societies.
“I feel like I can be a bridge between the real America and the real Middle East, which people in both countries don’t see,” she told the Christian Science Monitor. “Americans watching the Middle East on television just see fundamentalist anger, and Saudi Arabians watching America in TV and movies see violence, drugs, prostitution.”
“Neither sees what is going on day-to-day between normal citizens,” the 55-year-old said.
Despite the attention, Masry is facing a tough race to win a seat held by Republicans for more than three decades. Her opponent, Audra Strickland, has raised tens of thousands of dollars more and is the wife of the man who currently holds the seat but cannot run again because of term limits.
