Hillary's righthand woman

Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's traveling chief of staff, is a 32 year old South Asian American, the daughter of 2 academics, one Indian, one Pakistani.

While I don't really like how the Observer article portrays her as "Hillary Clinton’s mysterious, glamorous and eerily unflappable aide de camp", as though she is some mystical, magical Oriental who can vocalize her thoughts without saying a word.

I feel bad for the woman, especially since it seems like she likes her privacy, but working on a campaign sometimes means being the focus of intense scrutiny. On the other hand, it seems that she's helping Hillary understand Islam, which is really wonderful.

Assistant Secretary of State Dina Habib Powell is a fellow member of that exclusive club, and has become fast friends with Ms. Abedin.

Ms. Powell, a 33-year-old who was born in Cairo, is also a Muslim, also speaks fluent Arabic and is also uncannily stylish—she says she has been told on many occasions that she is Ms. Abedin’s Republican doppelgänger. She had some insights into what her colleague is really passionate about.

“[Huma] certainly feels a deep responsibility to encourage more mutual understanding between her beliefs and culture and American culture,” said Ms. Powell. “I think you will see Huma coming out of that role in the background.”

Hopefully, she will push Hillary and the campaign to do more outreach to, and understanding of all APIA communities.