Safa Al Hashem

Safa Al Hashem (born 1964), is a politician who is an elected Member of Parliament, and the only woman currently elected[1] to the Kuwait Parliament. She is the only female member to be elected to the Kuwait parliament consecutively, after women re-gained the right to vote and stand for office in 2005.[2]

Safa Al Hashem
Born1964 (age 55–56)
Kuwait
CitizenshipKuwait
Alma materKuwait University, Pennsylvania State University, Harvard Business School
Websitewww.safaalhashem.com

Education

Al Hashem obtained a degree in English literature from Kuwait University and completed her MBA from the Pennsylvania State University. She also has a post graduate executive education diploma from Harvard Business School. In 2011, she was awarded a Ph.D, Doctorate (Honoris causa) by the American University of Technology.[3]

Career

Before entering politics, Al Hashem worked for the government in the Ministry of Higher Education. She later worked in various private companies being associated with PIC, PWC and the KIPCO Group. Al Hashem then started Advantage Consulting in partnership with KIPCO and Gulf One Investment Bank, Bahrain.[4]

Politics

Al Hashem first stood for elections for 3rd Constituency in 2012 and won. After this parliament was annulled, she stood again from the same constituency and won again. In the 2012 assembly, she served as the rapporteur of the Economic and Financial Affairs committee, and was a member of the Response to the Amiri Addrss and Foreign Affairs committees.[4]

Al Hashem is notorious for her populist comments against foreigners living in Kuwait, including recommending that foreigners should be banned from obtaining driving licenses and should be taxed to walk on the streets.[5]

On April de 2017, during a meeting of the Negative Phenomena Committee, MP Mohammed Hayef, chairman of the committee, refused to sit next to her since she was wearing perfume, arguing that Sharia dictates that a man cannot “sit next to a woman who wears perfume”, and adding that “The laws and principles of the sharia are immutable. We cannot change them just because there is a new age or a new ideology. Allah says (to women) in the Quran: ‘And stay in your homes and do not display your allurements.'”.[6]

Election Victories
YearVotes polled
20122,622[7]
20132,036[8]
20163,273[1]

Awards
  • 2009 Business Woman of the Year.[9]
  • 2007 Female CEO of the year - CEO Middle East[10]

References
  1. Official list of winners of the 2016 National Assembly elections. Kuwait Times
  2. "Safa first woman to win two consecutive times". Gulf News. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  3. "Commencement 2011". American University of Technology. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  4. "MP Profile Getting to know you". Arab Times. 23 August 2013. p. 2.
  5. "Kuwait 'deported tens of thousands of expats' in 2016-2017". The New Arab. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  6. Kuwaiti MP refuses to sit by perfumed colleague. Times of Israel
  7. "Justice Al Hammadi announces 3rd constituency winners". KUNA. 2 December 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  8. "Justice Al-Enezi announces 3rd constituency winners". KUNA. 28 July 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  9. "Safa Al Hashem bags "Business Woman of the Year" Award". AME Info. 29 October 2009. Archived from the original on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  10. "CEO Middle East Awards 2007". Arabian Business. Retrieved 23 August 2013.


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