Sour Over Her Sweetheart Deal

Shaha Riza is angry about how the World Bank treated her, forcing her into paid leave and giving her unprecedented raises. (World Bank)

With Paul Wolfowitz leaving as president of the World Bank, the speculation now turns to whether Shaha Riza, the femme part of the Rizawitz combo, is ready to come back to her old job.

There can be no doubt she's furious about how she has been treated by the World Bank -- being forced to take a leave, staying on the bank's hideously cushy payroll, and having to endure enormous pay raises and promotions -- all because Wolfowitz wanted to be head of the bank.

In her April 30 deposition to an ad hoc committee looking into the situation, Riza seemed to be seething.

"We especially appreciate" your coming, lead committee member Herman Wijffels began, "because we understand how painful this whole episode must be for you."

"Do you?" she said.

Wijffels assured her he did. Riza explained her recollection of events back in 2005, when Wolfowitz came to the bank.

"And you know something, I kept on wondering: If I had been a man, would it have happened to me?" she said. "If it was just the opposite, would it have happened to me? And why is it the woman is always the one who has to leave?

"And I was fighting for that. I was fighting -- I'm a single mother. I am the one who takes care of my son. I don't have a man taking care of me."

On several occasions she noted that there were other couples working at the bank and that some wives of high-ranking officials were not required to leave their jobs, and she said that it would have been nice if a bank official could have "at least explained to me why I was being treated in a different way to all other spouses in this place."

"Or maybe," she continued, "I was wondering, maybe because they're married, they're seeing that their relationships are asexual. But because I'm dating, there must be sex there."

Uh, moving right along, Wijffels asked: "Did you consult with" Wolfowitz, "either directly or indirectly, concerning the . . . terms you proposed to" the bank's personnel chief?

"If you think I'm angry now," she responded, "you should see me angry then. No, of course not, because I thought he should have fought the decision by the ethics committee. He became them, you, the bank, and I had to fend for myself exactly the same way I'm fending for myself now."