Rashid al-Rifai

Rashid Muhammad-Said al-Rifai, (Arabic: رشيد محمد-سعيد الرفاعي) born May 1, 1929, is a retired Iraqi academic, Baathist, ambassador and minister of several establishments in Iraq.

He is most noted for his highly succesful posts as Oil, Planning, Housing, Communications and Transportation Minister Between 1968 and 1975. Rifai is credited for playing a major role in the development of the Iraqi infrastructure during this seven year period.

He was later made Ambassador by special appointment to Belgium (1975-1983), China (1983-1986) and Japan (1986-1993). After retiring in 1993, he served as an advisor to the Iraqi Foreign Minister, a member of the Iraqi Presidential Opinion Committee and a member of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, Iraq until the invasion and subsequent downfall of the government in April 9, 2003.

Rifai remained in Baghdad for the next three years but refused to participate in the new government on idealogical basis. He left Baghdad in 2006 after the situation became intolerable and is currently residing with his wife, Nabiha al-Timimi in the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan. They have four children, Rabab, Said, Faris and Mazin.

Early Life

Rashid al-Rifai was born in Baghdad, the Capital of Iraq at a time when it was very underdeveloped, the son of Muhammad-Said Alwan Rifai (1888-1979) a customs official who was originally from the city of Al Musayyib in Babil Province south of the Capital. His mother, Fatima was a housewife until her death in 1982. As the oldest male in a family of seven children (2 girls and 5 boys), he spent most of his youth supporting his siblings.

Education

As a child, Rashid was gifted with an above average IQ, and says that he wanted to be an electrical engineer ever since he could remember. After graduating from high school with honors, Rifai received a scholarship to the American University of Beirut(AUB), Lebanon in 1949. There, while majoring in Mathematics, he joined the Baath Party in 1953. After graduating from AUB with honors, Rifai returned to Baghdad and was subsequently employed by the Iraqi National Telephone Company.

Rifai received another scholarship, this time to the University of Bristol in the UK after the 1958 revolution which brought down the Iraqi Monarchy at the time. Once again graduating with honors after four years, he returned again to the National Telephone Company in Baghdad.

Another sholarship came subsequently, this time to Purdue University in Indiana, USA. There Rashid graduated earned his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with honors which culminated in yet another scholarship at Rice University in Houston, Texas, this time earning him a Ph.D. in the same subject.

Bibliography

Electrical Engineering

• The Effects of Drift Field and Field Gradient on the Quantum Efficiency of Photocells, Rice University, 1966.

Politics

• Iraq and Japan, Rationale and Horizons, Dept. of International Studies, Baghdad University, 1997
• Arabic Rationale (Arabic: المنطق العربي), Kodansha, 1992

References

1 List of Iraqis

External Links

• Purdue University Wall of Fame, 1964
• THE EFFECTS OF DRIFT FIELD AND FIELD GRADIENT ON THE QUANTUM EFFICIENCY OF PHOTOCELLS
• The Effects of Drift Field and Field Gradient on the Quantum Efficiency of Photocells.
• Japan National Press Club
• List of Official Mourners Representing Foreign Countries and International Organizations at the Funeral Ceremony of Emperor Showa
• The Iraqi Invasion: Tokyo Sees No Threat To Its Reserves of Oil
• Statement at the World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, Denmark March 10, 1995