Dr. Mehreen Faruqi is Australia’s first Muslim woman in the Senate.
Dr Faruqi immigrated to Australia in 1992 with her young family and prior to entering politics, held a distinguished career as an academic with a doctorate in environmental engineering. In 2013, she was elected to the State Parliament making her the first Muslim woman to attain ANY political office in Australia.
Ms Faruqi said she was excited to bring “much needed diversity” to the Australian Senate, and hoped her presence would encourage non-white Australians. “The reality is our federal parliament doesn’t look anything like the streets and suburbs of Australia. Slowly but surely things are changing.”
Watch Mehreen Faruqi’s maiden speech where she warns against the normalization of racism and says she’s unapologetically a “brown, Muslim, migrant, feminist woman.” And to those who want her to go back from where she came from, Faruqi said this: “This is my home and I’m not going anywhere.”
