Fadwa El Guindi (born 16 July 1940; age 84) played Amsha Bashir in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fifth season episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume". It is her only television role.
- "I'm an anthropologist, not an actress!" (citation needed • edit)
- - Fadwa El Guindi
She is a retired professor of Anthropology at UCLA, with a PhD from the University of Texas, and spokesperson for Arab-Americans. She promotes diversity and has spoken in front of the United Nations, and personally advised President Clinton on policy in the Middle East.
Her interests include the Middle East, visual ethnography, and ethnographic filmmaking. She is currently the Program Manager for Social Sciences at the Qatar National Research Fund in Doha, Qatar.
She was invited to audition for the role of Amsha Bashir after a casting agent saw her performance in Mahjar, a community theatre play about the Arab-American experience that she co-wrote and co-directed. The lead actress of Mahjar had dropped out of the show, forcing El Guindi to play the part.
Keith DeCandido wrote: "Fadwa El Guindi is radiant as Bashir’s mother, delivering her speech about the anguish they went through watching six-year-old Jules Bashir fail constantly with passion and intensity that’s made all the more impressive when you realize that she’s an anthropology professor rather than an actor". [1]