Who is Sahar Baassiri, the wife of the new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam?

Her career is at least as prestigious as her husband's. Sahar Baassiri, wife of newly appointed Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, was a prominent journalist and diplomat who served as the permanent representative of Lebanon to UNESCO from 2018 to 2023.

Born in 1960, she earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the American University of Beirut (AUB) before pursuing a master's in journalism at Columbia University in New York. She worked for the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar from 1981 to 2009 and in 1993, became the first woman to head a Foreign Affairs desk in a daily Lebanese newspaper and the first woman to write a front-page column in a daily newspaper in the Arab world. She wrote that front page column, which focused on regional issues and Lebanese politics, for 15 years and became well known for it.

From 1989 to 1991, she also served as a correspondent in Beirut for the media outlet United Press International.  Baassiri is also the author of two books in Arabic: "Lebanon on Hold" in 2008, a compilation of her articles and columns from An-Nahar, followed by "The Misguided Arabs" the same year.

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Baassiri wrote and co-produced a documentary called "Arafat" alongside another prominent Lebanese journalist, Giselle Khoury, in collaboration with the Yasser Arafat Foundation in Ramallah. The film, according to a U.N. press briefing that accompanied a screening in New York, documented Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s journey "through exclusive testimonies from his old brothers-in-arms and rare archival footage."

In 2014, Baassiri was elected president of the prominent Women's International Forum (WIF), “one of the most important organizations for women at the U.N.,” she told L'Orient-Le Jour then, in an interview from New York.

“The themes we cover range from violence against women, to health, the Arab Spring, climate change and water scarcity," she said of the organization, upon her election. "In short, we're interested in everything that's topical on the U.N. agenda,”

Heritage, women's rights and freedoms

In April 2024, she was appointed an associate member of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at AUB as an "expert in Arab affairs, culture, and media for Lebanon and the Arab world."

The university described her as "a defender of cultural heritage, women's rights, education reform, and freedom of expression."

The author and activist is rather discreet, rarely giving speeches and interviews, but she occasionally posts on her X account.

"The morning of a free Syria, the morning of liberation from tyranny, suffering, and humiliation," she wrote on Dec. 8, 2024, the day of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, overthrown by a swift offensive led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Baassiri also regularly publishes UNESCO's various measures regarding the protection of Lebanese heritage.

Through her X account, she also called for the continuation of the investigation into the deadly Aug. 4, 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut, stalled due to numerous political interferences and appeals filed against the judge in charge of the investigation, Tarek Bitar.

At the time of the arrest of former Governor of the Bank of Lebanon Riad Salameh in early September, she wrote: "We hope that justice will restore our confidence in it by investigating all his partners and allies [with Riad Salameh], and all those who benefited from his services, donations, and arrangements."

These are causes shared by her husband and ones she will undoubtedly continue to defend at his side.