Publications
Selected Publications
Fiona is a writer at PassBlue, an independent new site considered the most influential media source covering the US-UN relationship, human rights, peacekeeping and matters playing out at the UN. Fiona’s writing has appeared in such outlets as The Daily Beast, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, the Financial Times, The Washington Times and The Christian Science Monitor. She served as Afghanistan editor and later as editor-at-large for Muftah, a news site dedicated to global news analysis from diverse perspectives. Previously she was assistant editor of the United Nations Association’s InterDependent magazine, and assistant editor of New York University’s NYU Today.
Fiona worked as a news reporter before earning a masters degree in Middle East Studies and Journalism from New York University.
At a clinic at La Fossette Health Center in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, nurses vaccinate babies, among other health care services. The pandemic could further erode Haiti’s stability, experts say, given its precarious economic and political state. DANIEL LANARI/USAID
RECENT
Haiti Could Face a ‘Perfect Storm’ With the Pandemic
PassBlue | Independent Coverage of the UN
July 24, 2020
As Covid-19 continues to ravage many parts of the world, the effect of the virus in Latin America and the Caribbean region has been particularly devastating. The situation in Haiti, for example, has alarmed international humanitarian groups, as the country lacks sufficient virus-testing ability and has limited health-care infrastructure, among other serious problems.
On top of these deficiencies in combating the pandemic, Haitian migrants returning from neighboring countries like the Dominican Republic are believed to be spreading the virus significantly.
Kelley Currie, US ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, has had the job since January. The Trump administration tried to eliminate the post at one point but the Senate made it permanent. Currie worked previously at the US mission to the UN, above, for Nikki Haley. (ERIC BRIDIERS / UN Photo)
Does the New US Envoy for Women’s Rights Have Anything to Do?
Ms. Magazine
July 24, 2020
Six months into her job as the United States ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, Kelley Currie has done little to demonstrate that she can restore American leadership on women’s rights while reporting to an ideologically driven administration known for its regressive stance on gender equality.
While the ambassador’s office is charged with promoting women’s rights globally, the administration is better known for curtailing them. Currie reports directly to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who shows little interest in furthering the rights of women and shares President Trump’s opposition to reproductive and sexual health rights.
Eradication of Polio, Getty
Trump Defunding WHO Could Cost Us the Chance to Eradicate Polio Forever
The Daily Beast
June 20, 2020
Already struggling with a surging Covid-19 pandemic, United Nations health agencies must now face the possible abdication of the United States’ leading role in fighting polio — just as the world gets tantalizingly close to eradicating it for good.
Polio-free since 1979, the US has historically made combating the infectious disease its top funding priority at the World Health Organization, investing more than $158 million in voluntary funding over the last two years alone. The effort has broad public support dating to the 1950s, when Jonas Salk, with the help of the March of Dimes, created the first vaccine.
Samea Shanori and Fiona Shukri
Afghan Women on the US-Taliban Peace Deal: We Refuse to Be Symbols
PassBlue | Independent Coverage of the UN
March 25, 2020
Afghan women’s inclusion in the current peace negotiations with the Taliban and the United States has become an international cause célèbre. But calls for participation of Afghan women without methodical, sustained and substantive engagement in a peace settlement has the potential to harm them, not help them.
The international community should ensure that Afghan women are not used as window dressing. We’ve seen it happen too often before the Taliban-US deal.
Solar panels installed on the roof of the United Nations in New York, Aug. 27, 2019. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO
The UN Moves Toward ‘Climate Neutrality,’ but Is It Fast Enough?
PassBlue | Independent Coverage of the UN
February 18, 2020
The United Nations system has instituted some important changes toward becoming what it calls climate neutral. Some employees and former employees, however, think the UN could be doing much more to reduce the organization’s carbon footprint globally and to be a stronger role model in mitigating climate change.
After all, Secretary-General António Guterres recently said in Pakistan about the global “climate emergency” that “climate disruption is a clear and present danger worldwide.”
UN officials contend the system has largely met its target of becoming climate neutral by this year. The Secretariat — the main administrative and policymaking body of the UN system — reached that goal in 2018, and the overall UN system is now 95 percent climate neutral, according to UN Information Officer Dan Shepard.
Christmas in Kabul
“My Beautiful Christmas in Kabul”
PassBlue | Independent Coverage of the UN
December 24, 2019
The Christmas spirit finally found me drinking whisky on a rooftop in Kabul.
Given my multinational background — I’m from Boston but my father came from Iraq and my mother from London — it’s not surprising that I chose a career in foreign affairs. When people learn I spent nearly a decade in Afghanistan, they almost always ask 1) Did you wear a headscarf? 2) Were you ever in danger? 3) What is it like there?
Anyone who’s spent time overseas knows that nobody is terribly interested in any place other than where they live — New Yorkers, least of all. So, I developed an onion system. I start with the outer layer, providing the vaguest and mildest possible answer. The headscarf question gets, “I didn’t have to, but I usually did.” If my questioner wants more, I’ll peel the onion’s next layer and add: “Most women do there. I figured it’s good to blend in as much as possible.”
Newspapers
“United Good for All Nations,” New York Post, August 8, 1998.
“Reforming juvenile offenders: beyond boot camps”, The Christian Science Monitor, January 4, 2000.
Congressional Record
“Wilton Church was Baron out of Merger of 19th Century Churches”
WILTON.-Although the building is just over a year old, members of the Trinity United Church will tell you the area church dates back to 1839.
The church, located on Ballard Road, opened its doors Feb. 4, 1990, the result of a merger of three local churches, all of which were established in the 19th century.