WASHINGTON — President Trump has appointed Mary Kabir-Seraj Bechopping, 33-year-old and a descendant of Afghan royalty, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan. In her new role, Bechopping will oversee U.S. policy toward Afghanistan under the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.
This marks Trump’s first political appointee for Afghanistan. Bechopping is born and raised in California and has taken the job almost two weeks back.
She previously served as Senior Counsel and Subcommittee Staff Director for the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, where she led the South and Central Asia Subcommittee. In that role, she advised the committee leadership on regional issues and oversaw the panel’s investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Prior to her tenure on Capitol Hill, Bischoping worked as an Attorney-Adviser in the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser. She also served as a law clerk to Judge Kent A. Jordan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and practiced law at the New York offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
Bischoping holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is fluent in Dari and German.
Her appointment comes at a critical time as the people of Afghanistan faces human rights challengers under the Taliban rule.
