NEW DELHI, Aug. 23 -- On 1 February 2024, Saima Wazed raised her right hand in Geneva, read the oath of office from a folder held open in front of her, and became the World Health Organization's Regional Director for South-East Asia. Standing beside her was Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General she would be writing to, two years later, demanding an explanation.

She has not run the regional office since July 2025, and her lawyers have warned the WHO she may go to court over the leave that removed her. What follows is the record that put her in the job.

Wazed trained as a psychologist in the United States. She took a bachelor's degree, a master's in clinical psychology and a specialist degree in school psychology, all at Barry ...