Mr. Abdullah Abdullah MP
Parliament:
Palestinian Legislative Council
Political Party:
Palestine Liberation Organization Mr. Abdullah has been a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 1969. From 1972-1990 he was the PLO's representative to Canada and from 1990-2003 was the Ambassador of Palestine to Greece. Mr. Abdullah also formerly held the position of Deputy Foreign Minister (2003-2005). He has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) since 2006 and was elected Chairman of the PLC in April 2006. He has been a member of the Palestinian National Council since 1979 and chairs the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. He is frequently invited to attend various regional and international conferences.
Mr. Ahmed Abu Holy MP
Parliament:
Palestinian Legislative Council
Political Party:
Fatah Mr. Holy was born in Gaza, and holds a Doctorate in social and political sciences. A member of the Fatah party, he was elected member of the PLC in 2006. His positions include: Chair of the Budget Committee in the PLC; Member of the Social Affairs Commission; Member of the Public Opinion and Human Rights Commission; Chairman of the Azhar University Graduates; Founder of the Association for Strategic Studies; and Lecturer at the Al Quds Open University. He is a Former member of the Sports Committee in Gaza. Mr. Holy spent 4 years imprisoned in Israeli jails.
Hon. Saida Agrebi MP
Parliament:
Tunisian Parliament; Pan African Parliament Ms. Saida Agrebi graduated from the University of California, Berkeley MPH in social communication. She is a member of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union, representing North Africa, and also sits on the Pan-African Parliament representing Tunisia. Ms. Agrebi is President of the Tunisian Mothers Organization (OTM); is UN-NGO-IRENE Coordinator for Africa; and is a Board Member of the Arab International Women’s Forum. She is Journalist and chief editor in Arabic, French, English of the monthly magazine Mères Echos. She is presently vice president of the World Family Organization (WFO).
Mr. Ali Ahmeti MP
Parliament:
Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia
Political Party:
Democratic Union for Integration Mr. Ahmeti is the political leader of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), a governing political party in Republic of Macedonia. In 2001, Ahmeti was elected Supreme Commander and representative of the National Liberation Army (NLA). After the signature of the Ohrid Agreement in August 2001 and the decomposition of the NLA in September, Mr. Ahmeti was engaged in the political process of the implementation of this Agreement. In this light, he initiated and was named as a leader of the Coordination Council that unified all Albanian political parties in Macedonia, and the former structures of the NLA. In June 2002, Ahmeti founded a new political party called the Democratic Union for Integration. In September 2002, Mr. Ahmeti was elected as a MP in the Macedonian Parliament. In 2006 and in 2008 DUI won the elections and since then DUI is in the coalition with VMRO-DPMNE.
Mr. Olav Akselsen MP
Parliament:
Norwegian Parliament
Political Party:
The Labour Party Mr. Akselsen is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He was Minister of Petroleum and Energy from 2000-2001 in the first Stoltenberg cabinet. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1989. Former member/chairman of the Standing Committee on Business and Industry, the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment, the Standing Committee on Justice. Mr. Akselsen currently serves as chair of the parliamentary committee for foreign relations.
Dr. Najat Al Astal MP
Parliament:
Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Dr. Najat Al Astal was born in Khan Younis, Gaza in 1955. A single mother of six, Dr. Al Astal completed her BA in Medicine from Ain Shams University, Cairo. She received her Masters in General Health from Ben Gurion University, Israel. She is currently the General Director of al-Amal Hospital in Gaza and the Hospital Manager for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Khan Younis, Gaza.
Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi
Parliament:
UAE Parliament Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi is a member of the Federal National Council (the United Arab Emirates-UAE parliament). She is one of the first women in the history of the UAE to become a member of the UAE’s Parliament, and also its youngest parliamentarian.
Her Excellency Al-Awadhi began her two year parliament term in February 2007. She serves on the Education, Youth, Media and Culture Committee, and also the FNC steering committee which was set up to develop a scheme to modernize the parliament’s practices and overall effectiveness. She previously served on the Foreign Affairs, Planning, Petroleum, Mineral Wealth, Agriculture and Fishery Committee.
In addition to being the first female from the UAE to launch and head a free to air satellite tv channel, she is also the first woman from a Gulf Cooperation Country to hold a senior executive post in a state run media organization.
She serves as the CEO of Dubai Media Incorporated Channels (DMI), a media group which operates four free-to-air satellite channels that are owned by the government of Dubai. DMI channels include Dubai TV, Dubai One, Sama Dubai, Dubai Sports & Noor Dubai. She is also the General Manger of Dubai One.
Her climb to corporate leadership positions in the media landscape of the UAE, specifically that of television, has contributed to the encouragement of UAE women to join the burgeoning field of media, once viewed as a strictly male dominated industry.
She is a board member of the Young Arab Leaders and heads the UAE chapter’s education initiative; an initiative which seeks to provide higher education opportunities for talented UAE nationals. She sits on the Advisory Board of the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy, and is a board member of Dubai Women’s Establishment.
Since May 2007 Ms Al-Awadhi has been a monthly columnist for ‘Gulf News,’ the leading English news paper in the UAE. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire magna cum laude with a degree in History; there she was president of the Muslim Student Association, the Human Rights Committee and also a judicial advisor.
Dr. Qusay Al-Suhail, MP
Parliament:
Iraqi Council of Representatives
Political Party:
The Sadrist Party Dr. Qusay Al-Suhail is a top political leader of the Sadrist movement in Iraq (one of the largest factions among Iraq's Shi'ite majority) and a senior member of the Iraqi National Assembly. He serves as Rapportuer for the Water and Agriculture Committee in the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
Dr. Al-Suhail is also an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geology, University of Basrah. Dr. Al-Suhail graduated from the Baghdad University. He holds an MSc degree in Hydrology and a PhD in Hydrogeology from the Baghdad University. He’s a renowned expert in the water resources development in the region.
Apart from his brilliant scientific career, Dr, Al-Suhail has always been actively involved into a social and a political life of Iraq. In addition to his membership in the Iraqi National Assembly, he is a member of the Human Rights Committee in the city of Basrah (Southern Iraq) and a number of the civil society organizations in the country.
Mr. Ali Riza Alaboyun MP
Parliament:
TBMM - Turkish Grand National Assembly
Political Party:
Ak Parti (Justice and Development Party) Mr. Alaboyun graduated from Penn State University with a Master's degree in Mineral Engineering with a focus in energy, mining and environmental issues. After returning to Turkey, he worked in the Ministry of Energy and then in the private sector in managerial engineering positions for 25 years. Mr. Alaboyun has been in the Turkish Parliament since 2002 and is currently in his second term in office. He has been a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATOPA) and a member of the Committee on Environment. Mr. Alaboyun was also the co-chair of the parliamentarians at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul in 2008.
Mr. Gregor Amann
Political Party:
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Mr. Amann is a former member of the German Bundestag. He served as a member of the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs, the Committee for Development and Cooperation, and the Petitions Committee. Mr. Amann studied political science, psychology, and linguistics at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main, graduating with a Magister Artium (M. A.). Between 1987-2000 and 2004-2005, Mr. Amann was employed by Deutsche Lufthansa, and between 2001-2004 held the position of CEO of the SPD office in Frankfurt am Main.
Ms. Sitara Ayaz, Member of Provincial Assembly
Parliament:
Provincial Assembly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Political Party:
Awami National Party Ms. Sitara Ayaz is the Social Welfare and Women Development Minister of Pakistan’s North West Frontier province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and a member of the Provincial Assembly. She is a fervent supporter of the women’s and children’s rights in Pakistan. In June 2010 Ms.Ayaz was given a prestigious Pakistan Excellence Award as a recognition of her contribution to the protection of rights of women and children in her province.
