Despite only winning six seats in the 128-member parliament during last May’s elections, Lebanese women made a leap forward in the ministerial picture this week after political forces named four women in the new cabinet, for the first time in the country’s history.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri surprised parties by appointing Raya Hassan, who made history when she became the first woman interior minister in the Arab world.
Hassan, 51, had previously become the first woman in the region to be appointed finance minister between 2009 and 2011.
Seventeen new ministers were named on Thursday in Hariri’s 30-member government, while nine remained unchanged and four were former ministers.
“I am proud of Lebanese women, proud of the four female ministers in the government, proud of the first female interior minister in the Arab world, proud of the future and proud of Lebanon," Hariri said via Twitter after announcing his government.
Hariri’s previous Cabinet only included one woman in a secondary ministerial position.
Sources close to Hariri told Asharq Al-Awsat that the PM has chosen to name Hassan as Minister of Interior to empower women and because she has great competences, earlier proved at the Ministry of Finance.
In the new government, Nada Boustani Khoury was named Minister of Energy and Water by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), headed by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil.
The ministry is considered one of the most important portfolios in the new government, given its role in managing the electricity crisis and the oil sector.
Boustani, who is an activist within the FPM, has worked at the Ministry of Energy since 2010, offering consulting services at the electricity sector, and other projects and issues related to the organizational structure of the Ministry of Energy and its institutions.
Also, anchor May Chidiac was named Minister of State for Administrative Development by the head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea.
She was the victim of an assassination attempt, which she miraculously survived, six months after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005.
She is now the founder and President of May Chidiac Foundation and its affiliated media academy.
The fourth woman minister Violette Khairallah Safadi who was named State Minister for Women Affairs. She is the wife of former Minister of Finance Mohamad Safadi.
Khairallah worked as a presenter at the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and then as a news anchor and political host at Murr Television (MTV).
