The conflict in Ethiopia is resurging, which means that Fardau’s working days are busier than usual. Last-minute meetings with senior officials and the minister, working on memos and responding to parliamentary questions: everything has the highest priority. Fardau’s field of work is often in the spotlights, which means that the evening news regularly features things she’s been working on during the day.
Career like an adventure novel
Fardau obtained her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations at the University of Groningen in 2009, followed a year later by her Master’s in the same subject at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Keen to continue to study, she combined International Relations with the Bachelor’s in Religious Studies at VU Amsterdam, focusing on Islam. Fardau: “In the Netherlands, religion doesn’t matter for many people. But it does to 86% of the world population. I was brought up a Christian, but not really practising. Somehow or other, religion really interests me as a philosophy and way of finding meaning. This especially applies to Islam, which was a completely different world for me, a girl from a village in Friesland. Reports about it often have a negative slant, but it’s a great religion.”
Fardau's career reads like an adventure novel: she did an internship and worked for the UN in New York, spent a year in Brussels for the EU, worked at Foreign Affairs until being posted just over three years ago to a position as external relations and projects officer for the UNRWA in East Jerusalem. In the meantime, she also stood as a candidate for the PvdA (Labour Party) in the European elections in 2019. What’s more, Fardau is currently not only working at Foreign Affairs, but also lectures American students at the UvA on the course entitled Political and Economic Development of the Netherlands and the EU.
Gaining people's confidence through interest in religion
“It was an honour to spend time in East Jerusalem. I made a contribution to ensuring that Palestinian refugees were not forgotten,” explains Fardau. “My knowledge of Islam helped me to do the job better. If you’re internationally active and want to gain people’s confidence, it makes so much difference if you have a genuine interest in their religion and culture.”
At that time, back in 2015, Fardau saw how Europe was attempting to resist the flow of refugees. But the region was actually able to accommodate them. The debate disturbed her: “The region had already accepted many millions. I was out there in the hotspot thinking: where else do you want to put them? That why I stood for the European elections. I want to stand up for democracy and the rule of law and bring some perspective to the debate about migration.”
From atheists to the deeply religious
Fardau found her degree at VU Amsterdam the most interesting: “It was then that I developed a capacity for abstract intellectual thought: thinking deeply without judging. My fellow students ranged from atheists to the deeply religious. My advice is to get involved with lots of different people. Show an interest. Ask people who have interesting jobs if you can talk to them or shadow them, to find out if the work would suit you. It enables you to build up a network and make a more considered choice that will have an impact on the rest of your life.”
Photography: Wouter Zaalberg
