Did you know Rita Panahi is a news anchor from Australia? This piece lets you know Rita Panahi net worth, husband, children, parents, family, age, height, salary, and other information you need.
Introduction
Rita Panahi is an Australian conservative news anchor and columnist. She works for The Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, and is the host of The Rita Panahi Show and The Friday Show on Sky News Australia and is a contributor to Sunrise on the Seven Network. She is on the radio at 3AW and 2GB. She also hosts her Lefties Losing It compilati ons.
Panahi is described as a conservative. She has been described as ‘surprisingly’ progressive on some social issues. Writing for SBS, Margaret Simons observed that Panahi hates homophobia and has argued in favor of women choosing single motherhood, as she has.
Early life
| Name | Rita Panahi |
| Net Worth | $3 million |
| Occupation | News anchor, Columnist |
| Age | 47 years |
| Height | 1.71m |
Rita Panahi was born on March 3, 1976 (age 47 years) in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States. She is the daughter of Iranian parents. Her mother was a midwife and her father was an agricultural engineer. The family returned to Iran during her infancy, living on the coast and moving to Tehran by 1979. Her mother worked for a hospital associated with the Shah during the Iranian Revolution.
Panahi described her parents as “relaxed Muslims who were not particularly political”. However, her family was targeted by the Shia Islamist government of Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1984, they were accepted by Australia as refugees and lived in Melbourne.
She worked in banking while attending Monash University, studying but not completing a Bachelor of Business Finance. She joined Australian Young Labor and volunteered in the 1996 election campaign. Panahi worked as a personal banker at Colonial Mutual and was the youngest branch manager in the company’s history.
In January 2015, she wrote an article entitled “Islam, you have a very serious problem” which was published in the Daily Telegraph. News website New Matilda published an open letter critical of Panahi’s article. Against accusations of Australia being systematically racist, Panahi argued that Australia should not be characterized as racist. In January 2017, Panahi was encouraged by Michael Kroger to stand for Liberal Party pre-selection in the Victorian state electorate of Frankston.
Career
Rita Panahi initially wrote for the daily free commuter newspaper mX, writing a weekly sports gossip column. Her column was picked up for a second year and by 2007 she was a regular guest on the AM sports radio station SEN. She earned her MBA from Swinburne.
Panahi began working for the Herald Sun in September 2007, published by the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), a subsidiary of News Corp Australia. Panahi is also a regular guest on Sky News Australia and Sunrise on the Seven Network. She is also a radio commentator on 3AW and 2GB. In March 2018, Panahi began hosting The Friday Show on Sky News Live.
She is a former Muslim and is critical of aspects of Islam. Panahi has accused what she regards as the regressive left of abetting Islamism in the West, stating “the former excuse behavior that they would never tolerate from non-Muslims.” She has described Western feminists who view modesty veils such as burkas, niqabs, and hijabs as symbols of diversity or empowerment as an example of such abetment. However, she opposes a complete ban on Muslim immigration.
She has argued against the burqa and has criticized non-Western women who wear hijabs in solidarity with Muslim women, arguing that the hijab is a political symbol as well as a religious one and that it was forced on her as a child in Iran. She has supported statements against veils made by fellow former Muslims such as Darya Safai and Yasmine Mohammed.
In January 2015, Panahi clashed with Andrew O’Keefe on Weekend Sunrise over her maligning of Muslims. Panahi stated: “We need to start discussing intelligently the issues we have with the Muslim community,”. O’Keefe replied: “Every time a fundamentalist Christian in the United States bombs an abortion clinic or bombs a synagogue, do we hold all the Christians in the world accountable for that?”.
Panahi responded: “Andrew, that’s such a nonsensical argument… We’ve got to stop doing what you just did and pretending like Islam is like any other religion, as far as being behind incidences of terror.” In January 2015, she wrote an article entitled “Islam, you have a very serious problem” which was published in the Daily Telegraph. News website New Matilda published an open letter critical of Panahi’s article.
In her column in The Australian, Panahi argued in favor of stopping the boats and strongly supported Australia’s humanitarian intake through regular means. The offshore detention camps, which have been criticized by human rights organizations, are, she says, an uncomfortable necessity to deter desperate people from attempting the dangerous sea voyage.
Panahi said that she was previously in favour of republicanism but now supports retaining the Monarchy of Australia, arguing that monarchy is a flawed system but “the reality is that it works for Australia. We have a stable system of government with a figurehead who is benign, much admired, and not interested in interfering in our affairs.”
She has also expressed opposition to the views of the Australian Republican Movement’s former chairman Peter FitzSimons and agreed with an assessment made by former Senator David Leyonhjelm that debates over the monarchy are a non-issue for average Australians but one obsessively pushed by republicans.
Panahi has criticized the political statements made by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, arguing they have “trashed” the legacy of Queen Elizabeth. Before the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022, Panahi opined that the crown should be passed down to Prince William instead of his father, Charles.
She maintained that while she had some disagreements and reservations about Donald Trump, she favored his re-election and argued that a Trump victory would be more beneficial to Australian national security over a Biden presidency. She furthermore accused the media of ignoring the increase in black, gay, and Hispanic support for Trump to accuse him of racism.
Husband
As of November 2023, Rita Panahi has no husband. She has a child with an undisclosed father and was a single parent as of 2016. She stands at an appealing height of 1.68m and has a good body weight which suits her personality.
Rita Panahi net worth
How much is Rita Panahi worth? Rita Panahi net worth is estimated at around $3 million. Her main source of income is from her primary work as a news anchor and columnist. Rita Panahi’s salary per month and other career earnings are over $230,000 annually. Her remarkable career achievements have earned her some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy car trips. She is one of the richest and most influential journalists in Australia.