April 28, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 21, 1429

AL KHOBAR, April 27: Bahrain is nominating a Jewish woman as its ambassador to the United States, press reports said.

Huda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo is Bahrain’s nominee for the post and this is of course very good news for Bahrain’s deep-rooted values of tolerance and openness,” Faisal Fouladh, a Shura Council representative, and some western diplomats were quoted in the reports as saying.

Huda Nonoo, a businesswoman, was also the first Jewish woman to sit in the Bahriani Shura Council, the 40-member upper house of the bicameral legislature, replacing her uncle.

She is also the first Jewish woman to head a rights organisation, the Bahrain Human Rights Watch, as its secretary-general.

The appointment of Huda is based on her qualification and not just ‘a public relationing campaign’ by the island kingdom, her colleagues in Shura insisted.

Huda Nonoo belongs to a tiny Jewish community in Bahrain, dating back to the Talmudic era. Her forefathers migrated from Iraq in the late 19th century.