Sheherazad “Sherry” Jaafari
CATCHING ‘FLACK’: Barbara Walters, who landed a sit-down with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, is under fire after pulling strings to get his media aide, Sheherazad “Sherry” Jaafari, a spot in a Columbia master’s program. (AP)
CATCHING ‘FLACK’: Barbara Walters, who landed a sit-down with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, is under fire after pulling strings to get his media aide, Sheherazad “Sherry” Jaafari, a spot in a Columbia master’s program. (
)
Syrian rights groups are demanding Columbia University rescind its admission of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s media adviser, who landed a spot at the school after Barbara Walters muscled in.
“We are outraged with what is happening at Columbia University,” Sarab al-Jijakli, a spokesman for the National Alliance for Syria, said of Sheherazad “Sherry” Jaafari’s admission there.
“Columbia and Barbara Walters must ensure that they right the wrong and not accept someone from the inner circle of the al-Assad regime into their university.”
Jaafari, 22, who spent the past year advising Assad on how to lie about civilian massacres, has remained holed up in the luxurious East 65th Street townhouse where she lives with her diplomat father.
But this weekend, The Post spotted her outside the building — the former home of Richard Nixon now owned by the Syrian government — sporting a “No Boyfriend/No Problem” T-shirt and baseball cap.
She looked like a typical American college student — if not for the NYPD police detail that shepherded her into a chauffeured SUV.
She is granted police protection because her father, Bashar Jaafari, is the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations.
Walters, a Jaafari family friend, has expressed “regret” in helping her get into Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs master’s program, which rejects four out of five applicants.
Her assistance — in the form of e-mails to Columbia Professor Richard Wald — was revealed a few weeks after Sherry arranged for the ABC newswoman to get an exclusive December 2011 interview with Assad in Damascus.
Walters had heaped praise on Jaafari, calling her “brilliant, beautiful” and addressing her as “dear girl” in the e-mails.
Wald, an ethics lecturer who was a chief at ABC News, promised he’d get admissions officials to give Jaafari special attention.
Indeed, admissions officers ignored the warning of Haya Dweidary, the only Syrian in the Columbia international program’s 2012 graduating class specifically asked about Jaafari’s credentials.
“I told them they should not let the girl in. She is horrible and supporting the regime,” Dweidary recalled. “I was sure she wasn’t going to be admitted because of her strong affiliation with the government and all the human-rights violations. It was completely shocking that she was admitted.”
And she had harsh words for Walters, who also had tried to get Jaafari a job with CNN.
Jaafari “was helping portray that the killings are not happening, and for Barbara Walters to support someone like that, having been in Syria and knowing what is happening, is very disturbing,” Dweidary said.
At a charity event in TriBeCa last night, Walters said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” when asked about the controversy.
Columbia to declined comment.
“The prestige of Columbia University is at stake,” Abdulla Ibraheem, a board member with the Syrian Expatriate Organization, said in an e-mail.
“We hope that Columbia University will rescind Jaafari’s admissions and join other universities in supporting the Syrian struggle for freedom and democracy.”