Laila Al-Marayati

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Laila Al-Marayati is a Palestinian-American doctor and Islamic activist, and former presidential appointee to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, where she served for two years after being appointed by President Bill Clinton.

Al-Marayati was born in 1963 to Palestinian parents, and was raised in Los Angeles.

She earned her medical degree from UC-Irvine, and received specialty training in gynecology at Los Angeles County USC Women's Hospital. After, she opened her own gynecology practice, which she ran for 11 years. She is currently Director of Women's Health at a large community health center in California.

In the 1990's, Al-Marayati served as a member of the US State Department's Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad, and was a member of the official US Delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, alongside former-First Lady Hillary Rodham-Clinton, in 1995.

From 1999 to 2001, she served as a presidential appointee to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), where she was a frequent critic of the United States' policies.

She was highly critical of the 2002 appointment of Elliot Abrams as head of the United States National Security Council's Near East and North African office, arguing that his neo-conservative views him to overlook Israel's alleged violations of the rights of religious minorities.

She is the former head of the KinderUSA foundation, which she shut down during an FBI investigation.

[edit] References

• Profile of Laila Al-Marayati at the Institute for Middle East Understanding
• Biography of Laila Al-Marayati at the Chautauqua Foundation
• "President Clinton names three to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom", Muslim Women's League, 6 May 1999
• "The Commission of International Religious Freedom: Criticism of Israel Stifled", Laila Al-Marayati, The Jerusalem Fund Information Brief No. 80, 23 July 2001
• "The Biases of Elliot Abrams", Laila Al-Marayati, Counterpunch.org, 16 December 2002