Ferial Masry is being watched, not because she is a fine teacher of government and history in the inner city, nor because she was recently “Person of the Week” on ABC’s “World News Tonight,” but because she has plans to become the first Arab-American, man or woman, to gain an elective office in the United States.
Can she beat the odds? Only if she wins in a district that is strongly Republican. Yet, she is off to a good start, winning the Democratic primary the hard way, as a write-in for the 37th Assembly District.
She attributes a lot of her motivation to the Constitution of the United States. It is a very small document of 7,000 words, but what it has in it is something visionary and beautiful, she told Jennings on ABC News.
Masry is passionately involved in national issues. She is against the war in Iraq, a view counter to the predominant leanings in her district. To add depth to the debate in her own household is the fact that her son, Omar, is an Army sergeant who just returned home after serving in Iraq for a year and a half.
She was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, clearly an impossible place to celebrate Women’s Equality Day. One of seven children, her mother never learned to read or write. Yet her mother sent her three young daughters to Egypt to be educated. Masry recalled the day her mother prepared three little girls to leave home. “She gave us our clothes, she put us on the airplane and she said, ‘Go.'”
Masry excelled as a student. She graduated from college in Cairo and married Walid, a civil engineer. They lived in Nigeria and Britain, but her dream was to come to America. They arrived in 1979. Eventually, she earned a master’s degree in school administration from California Lutheran University.
Masry serves on the board of Democratic Club of Conejo Valley, National Women’s Political Caucus, Ventura County, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, San Fernando Valley Chapter. Masry will speak this evening (Thursday) at a private residence to highlight Aug. 26, Women’s Equality Day.
Mona Loo