Tania Rashid
GRANTEE
Tania Rashid is an award-winning journalist who presently works as a special correspondent for PBS Newshour. The focus of her work has been on human rights, and women's issues. She has contributed to networks like the Channel 4, The National Geographic Channel, Vice, Mic, and CNN International.
Born in Saudi Arabia to a Bangladeshi father and Pathan mother, Tania Rashid moved to Utah at a young age. She remembers watching Christiane Amanpour on TV and being inspired to similarly travel the world to tell stories. Journalism was not an encouraged path in her household since Rashid's parents wanted her to be a doctor, engineer, pharmacist or lawyer.
But during her undergraduate years at University of California Los Angeles, where she studied global studies and history, she started to see opportunities unfold. Her initial internship at Nightline ABC further ignited her spark for journalism and storytelling. She then went to Columbia University where she received her masters in Broadcast Journalism and documentary. Shortly after graduation she moved to South Asia and lived there for 4 years.
Her breaking story was at at Al Jazeera English where she was the first female journalist on the ground at the collapse of "Rana plaza" the largest industrial disaster in Bangladesh which killed thousands of factory workers. She also followed the life of sex workers, toxic tanneries, and child marriage in the region. Her work has also taken her abroad to South Africa, India, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
