His Female Companion

[€uroMeinke]

NPR has focused on Paul Wolfowitz of the World Bank lately - but all those scandals aside, I'm intrigued that the term "his female companion" keeps coming up in reference to Shaha Ali Riza, a woman he is romantically linked to - not girlfriend, mistress, partner - but consistently, "his female companion."

Thinking perhaps this is a new form of NPR politically correct speech, I plugged the term into Google and returned many more articles on Paul Wolfowitz - and a link to a wikipedia page on "beards" - are they implying he's gay - I wondered?

Anyway, I continue to be intrigued by the term and what it implies about their relationship and status. Is it becasue Shaha Ali Riza is too respected a person in the World Bank to diminish her as a "girlfriend" (i.e. defined only by her relationship to the man) - If so, is this term a symbol of arriving at professional success as an unmarried woman? or is it just becasue she's an older woman and "girlfriend" or "mistress" imply a sexual relationship which we'd rather not think about older people having?