About the Author
Shiruzimath Sameer
Shiruzimath Sameer is a Maldivian diplomat, author and mother whose twenty-year career has taken her from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malé to postings in Berlin, Dhaka and New York.
She began her journey into diplomacy in 2006 at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) in Kuala Lumpur and joined the Ministry in 2007. In the years that followed, she held a range of senior roles, first in the Human Resources Division and later as Permanent Secretary. As Chargé d’Affaires, she was instrumental in opening the first resident Embassy of the Maldives in Berlin, and as High Commissioner in Dhaka, she led the mission through a global pandemic. She went on to serve as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Maldives Mission to the United Nations in New York and is now Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malé.
About The Author
Shiruzimath Sameer
Shiruzimath Sameer is a Maldivian diplomat, author and mother whose twenty-year career has taken her from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malé to postings in Berlin, Dhaka and New York.
She began her journey into diplomacy in 2006 at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) in Kuala Lumpur and joined the Ministry in 2007. In the years that followed, she held a range of senior roles, first in the Human Resources Division and later as Permanent Secretary. As Chargé d’Affaires, she was instrumental in opening the first resident Embassy of the Maldives in Berlin, and as High Commissioner in Dhaka, she led the mission through a global pandemic. She went on to serve as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Maldives Mission to the United Nations in New York and is now Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malé.
Two Decades. Many Shores. One Purpose.
One Woman’s Path Through the World of Diplomacy
From a jetty in Malé to the halls of the United Nations — follow the postings, people and places that shaped a life in service.
Malé Maldives
Beyond
Motherhood and the ongoing story of a life carried across borders.
Malé Maldives
Where it began-and the first steps into a life of diplomacy.
Beyond
Motherhood and the ongoing story of a life carried across borders
Maldives
Where it began — the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marine Drive, and the first steps into a life of diplomacy.
Kuala Lumpur
A Master’s degree at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) — and the education that shaped a career.
United Nations
Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the Maldives Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Berlin
Opening the Maldives’ first resident Embassy in Germany, serving as Chargé d’Affaires.
Beyond
Dhaka, a global pandemic, motherhood, and the ongoing story of a life carried across borders.
About the Book
Carrying the Maldives
Twenty Years Between Home and the World
There is a photograph Shiruzimath Sameer does not have: a young woman standing at the edge of a jetty in Malé in 2006, suitcase in hand, suspended between the person she had been and the person she was about to become.
Carrying the Maldives is the memoir of that journey — twenty years spent representing a small island nation in rooms most people never see. From a classroom in Kuala Lumpur to the Security Council, from the invisible discipline of diplomatic drafting to a posting in Berlin, from a pandemic lockdown in Dhaka to at the United Nations in New York, this is a story told not through ceremony, but through the real texture of the work: the preparation before every meeting, the family separated by distance, the suitcase packed and repacked, always with the same deliberate care.
Reflections & Insights from a Life in Diplomacy
Essays and stories on diplomacy, identity, and the journey behind Carrying the Maldives.
Island Lessons: What the Ocean Taught Me
I grew up in a small island city, where the ocean was never just scenery. It was a neighbour and a teacher, at times a stern one.
Women in Diplomacy: Making Space at the Table
Diplomacy has traditionally been described in the language of strength. But the most effective
Home in My Heart, The World in My Work
There is a feeling known to anyone who carries their home in their heart while their work carries them across the world.
What Readers Are Saying
Early readers of Carrying the Maldives
