Summary of Huma Abedin’s Both/And

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview:Hillary Clinton is the mother figure to two women: her daughter Chelsea Clinton, and her longtime political staffer Huma Abedin.

In Abedin’s Both/And , she tells of her unexpected rise into American politics after growing up in Saudi Arabia. A longtime aide to the Clinton family, she is now a longtime family friend as well. She helped Hillary run for president in both the 2008 and 2016 elections.

Abedin has experienced many ups and downs in  her political career as a woman from a Middle Eastern country. Her gender and her national origin have often been called into question, and she has always felt that Hillary championed them not as weaknesses, but as strengths. While America has failed her in the past, Abedin still believes in the virtues and strengths of the US system that  fostered her  political career.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669345299

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Summary of Huma Abedin’s  Both/And

Overview

Hillary Clinton is the mother figure to two women: her daughter Chelsea Clinton, and her longtime political staffer Huma Abedin.

In Abedin’s Both/And , she tells of her unexpected rise into American politics after growing up in Saudi Arabia. A longtime aide to the Clinton family, she is now a longtime family friend as well. She helped Hillary run for president in both the 2008 and 2016 elections.

Abedin has experienced many ups and downs in  her political career as a woman from a Middle Eastern country. Her gender and her national origin have often been called into question, and she has always felt that Hillary championed them not as weaknesses, but as strengths. While America has failed her in the past, Abedin still believes in the virtues and strengths of the US system that  fostered her  political career.

From Kalamazoo to Saudi Arabia

In 1978, Huma  Abedin moved with her family to Saudi Arabia from Kalamazoo, Michigan, for what was supposed to be a temporary stay. She was three. Her father was sick with kidney failure and had been told he only had a few years to live.

Her parents chose Saudi Arabia because they both were offered lucrative teaching positions at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. The family only had to pay for food, entertainment, clothing, and gas. They were only year-long teaching positions, and her father was extremely enthusiastic about it.

Abedin’s  father, Syed Zain Abedin , had a boundless curiosity. He would often strike up conversations with strangers, asking about their pasts and origins. As a scholar, the past was invaluable to him, the key to answering questions about the future. But as a father, he kept  his past hidden from his children.  

Zain was born in New Delhi, India. He was one of 12 siblings, six boys and six girls, but five of those boys didn’t make it to age nine. Zain was the only surviving son. He grew up during the demarcation of India and Pakistan, a very unstable time.

He went to America on a Fulbright scholarship to attend