Rita Panahi was born on 1976 and is an Australian conservative political commentator and columnist of Iranian descent.
25 Facts About Rita Panahi
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Rita Panahi is a columnist in the Herald Sun, owned by News Corp Australia, is the host of The Rita Panahi Show, Lefties Losing It and The Friday Show on Sky News Australia and is a contributor to Sunrise on the Seven Network.
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Rita Panahi's views have been described as conservative and right-wing.
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Rita Panahi was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States, the child of Iranian parents.
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Rita Panahi's mother was a midwife, and her father was an agricultural engineer.
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Rita Panahi's mother worked for a hospital associated with the Shah at the time of the Iranian Revolution.
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Rita Panahi worked in banking while attending Monash University, studying but not completing a Bachelor of Business in Finance.
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Rita Panahi joined Australian Young Labor and volunteered in the 1996 election campaign.
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Rita Panahi worked as a personal banker at Colonial Mutual and was the youngest branch manager in the company's history.
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Rita Panahi has a child with an undisclosed father and was a single parent as of 2016.
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Rita Panahi initially wrote for the daily free commuter newspaper mX, writing a weekly sports gossip column.
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Rita Panahi's column was picked up for a second year and by 2007 she was a regular guest on the AM sports radio station SEN.
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In September 2007, Rita Panahi began working for the Herald Sun, published by the Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia.
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Rita Panahi is a regular guest on Sky News Australia and Sunrise on the Seven Network.
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In March 2018, Rita Panahi began hosting The Friday Show on Sky News Live.
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Against accusations of Australia being systemically racist, Rita Panahi argued that Australia should not be characterised as racist.
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In January 2017, Rita Panahi was encouraged by Michael Kroger to stand for Liberal Party pre-selection in the Victorian state electorate of Frankston.
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Rita Panahi is a former Muslim and is critical of aspects of Islam.
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Rita Panahi has argued against the burka and has criticised Western women who wear hijabs in solidarity with Muslim women, arguing that the hijab is a political symbol as well as a religious one, and that it was forced on her as a child in Iran.
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Rita Panahi has supported statements against veils made by fellow former Muslims such as Darya Safai and Yasmine Mohammed.
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In January 2015, Rita Panahi clashed with Andrew O'Keefe on Weekend Sunrise over her comments regarding Muslims.
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Rita Panahi stated: "We need to start discussing intelligently the issues we have with the Muslim community".
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However, Rita Panahi has criticised the political statements made by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, arguing they have "trashed" the legacy of Queen Elizabeth.
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Ahead of the 2020 United States presidential election, Rita Panahi maintained that while she had some disagreements and reservations about Donald Trump, she favoured his re-election and argued that a Trump victory would be more beneficial to Australian national security over a Biden presidency.
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Rita Panahi furthermore accused the media of ignoring the increase in black, gay, and Hispanic support for Trump in order to accuse him of racism.