Chair of Intelligence Squared debates on BBC World News

Zeinab Badawi

BBC World News presenter

Zeinab Badawi is a television and radio broadcaster. She began her career as a broadcast journalist for Yorkshire TV (1982-1986) and then went on to work for BBC Manchester until 1987. From 1988 she was a news reporter and presenter at Channel 4 News for ten years. In 1999 she became a BBC presenter and reporter for Westminster live political programmes, BBC World Service Radio and TV. In February 2004 she hosted a Radio 3 special on the politics and culture of the Arabian Peninsula.

Badawi is also Chair of the Africa Medical Partnership Fund (AfriMed), Board Member of the Institute of contemporary British history at London University, Committee Member of the British Belgian bi-lateral conferences, Trustee of the BBC World Service Trust and Vice-President for the United Nations. In 2003 she became a member of the FCO’s Public Diplomacy Strategy Board.

Born in Sudan, Zeinab was educated at St Hilda’s College, Oxford University where she was an undergraduate in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. She also studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she attained a Masters Degree in Politics and Anthropology of the Middle East.