Egyptian woman arms inspector in Baghdad
The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed el-Baradei, aroused the interest and admiration of the Egyptian people when he disclosed that the 18-member UN arms inspection vanguard in Baghdad includes an Egyptian woman.
The inspector's family in Cairo have admitted that she did not inform them before leaving Vienna, Austria for Baghdad.
Arms inspectors arrived in the Iraqi capital last week to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which seeks to dismantle the alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Dr Maha Refaat Mahmoud Fouad, 40, graduated top of her class in 1982 from the Faculty of Science's Chemistry Department.
She got a master's degree in analytical chemistry from Ain Shams University in 1987 and was awarded a PhD in the philosophy of chemical science from Vienna University in 1996.
Maha, who is married to Dr Adel Ramadan Salama, an assistant professor at the Atomic Energy Agency in Cairo, has two daughters.
The elder daughter, 14, is studying at an international school in the Austrian capital, while her younger sister is in the junior section of the same school.
The former chairman of the Atomic Energy Agency in Cairo, Dr Fawzi Hamad, described Dr Fouad as 'an efficient researcher, who used to be on the IAEA's teaching staff'.
"After her appointment to the international agency, she was given the job of inspecting nuclear facilities in the USA," her former boss said.
