Najah al-Attar

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2009)

Najah Al-Attar (Arabic: نجاح العطار‎; born 10 January 1933) is the Vice President of Syria. She is the only female to have held the post and has served since 2006.^[1] Alongside Rania al Yassin and the First Lady of Syria, Asma al-Assad, she is one of a small number of women to have held a prominent political role in the Middle East.

Personal background

Najah Al-Attar was born on 10 January 1933 and raised in Damascus. Her father was among nationalist leaders who took part in the 1925-1927 Syrian revolt against the French Mandate of Syria.

Career

She studied at the University of Damascus, graduating in 1954, and obtained PhD in Arabic literature from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom in 1958. She also received a number of certificates then in international relations and in literary and art criticism. She is an accomplished translator and started teaching in high schools within Damascus after her return from the UK, then worked in the Department of Translation of Ministry of Culture. In 1976, she was appointed as Minister of Culture until 2000. She has a collection of novels, editorials and significant literature contributions.

Political alignment

Although she is vice-president and served as a long-term minister in Syria, a state largely controlled by the Ba'ath Party, her brother, Isam al-Attar is the leader of the Damascus Faction of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and has lived in exile in Aachen, Germany since the 1970s.

See also

• Politics of Syria

References

This article about a Syrian politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e