Farzana Zahir

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, High Commissioner of the Republic of Maldives to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Biography

High Commissioner Farzana Zahir joined the Department of External Resources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1996 as a Secretary. Since then, she has served in different functions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives. 
 
She served as a Counsellor at the Maldives High Commission in Malaysia from 2009 to 2012. She was also a member of the Maldives delegation to the main sessions of the United Nations General Assembly from 2015 – 2019. 
 
Before she was appointed as the High Commissioner of Maldives in Pakistan, she served as the Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Maldives to the UN in New York from 2017 till 2020. During this time, Ms. Farzana led the work of the Maldives Chairmanship of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in 2017 and 2018, advocating for the special circumstances of Small Island States at the UN. This included leading negotiation efforts on behalf of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), for the recognition of their specific challenges, more specifically in the areas of sustainable development, climate change and oceans issues. She also took special interest in Disaster Risk Reduction, including coordinating the Disaster Risk Reduction Resolution for the Group of 77 and engaging closely in other efforts in this area. 
 
High Commissioner Farzana graduated from Australian National University with a Bachelor of Arts (Development Studies) and with Master of Development Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is married with two children.