Meet Khalida Boufedech, the first woman to lead Algeria’s parliament
Khalida Boufedech became Algeria’s first woman parliament speaker and the highest-ranking woman to hold constitutional office in the country’s history.
Algeria’s lower house of parliament will be led by a woman for the first time in the country’s history, after Algerian lawmakers elected Khalida Boufedech, who is now the highest-ranking woman to hold constitutional office in the country.
Details: Boufedech won 302 of the 366 votes cast during the election for speaker of the National People’s Assembly, Algeria’s 407-seat lower house, late Tuesday.
The 44-year-old is the first woman to lead either chamber of Algeria’s parliament. As speaker of the lower house, she became the country’s fourth-highest-ranking state official.
Boufedech competed against two male opposition candidates: Amine Allouche of the Islamist opposition and Rachid Hassani of the secular opposition.
Boufedech is a member of the National Liberation Front, the largest party in parliament and the largest within the pro-government coalition aligned with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
She was elected as a lawmaker for the first time, representing Algiers, after Algeria’s July 2 legislative elections ushered in a new five-year parliament. Following the elections, Boufedech emerged as the consensus candidate of the pro-presidential parliamentary majority, securing the backing of the main parties in Algeria’s governing bloc, along with allied independents.
Background: Born in 1982, Boufedech graduated in general medicine from the University of Algiers in 2008 and obtained a specialist diploma in allergology and clinical immunology in 2019, according to Algeria’s state-owned El Moudjahid newspaper.
She began her medical career at public hospitals in Algiers before being appointed head of a department at the Algiers provincial health directorate in 2023.
Boufedech entered politics while continuing her medical career, serving from 2012 to 2017 on the municipal assembly of Bordj El Bahri, an eastern suburb of Algiers, before joining the local assembly of Algiers in 2021.
Boufedech is married and has two daughters, according to a biography released by Algeria's lower house.
Know more: While Boufedech is the highest-ranking woman to hold constitutional office in Algeria’s history so far, the country has produced several prominent female political figures.
Among them are Zohra Drif, who served as vice president of parliament’s upper house; Louisa Hanoune, Algeria’s first woman presidential candidate and longtime leader of the opposition Workers’ Party; and former Culture Minister Khalida Toumi.
