Khadija Arib (; ar, خديجة عريب; born 10 October 1960) is a
Moroccan-Dutch
Moroccans in the Netherlands (, , also known as Dutch-Moroccans or Moroccan-Dutch) are immigrants from Morocco to the Netherlands and their descendants.
Migration history
Moroccans were not much represented in the first major postwar wave of mi ...
politician of the
Labour Party, who served as
Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands from 12 December 2015 to 7 April 2021. In the
2016 Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives election
The 2016 Speaker of the House of Representatives election was called to elect the new Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands after incumbent Anouchka van Miltenburg of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) had ...
on 13 January, she was elected to the position, which she had served as Acting Speaker since the resignation of
Anouchka van Miltenburg on 12 December 2015. Arib became a member of the
House of Representatives following the
1998 Dutch general election and served until 2022, with a brief interruption between 2006 and 2007.
Early life
Khadija Arib was born on 10 October 1960 in Hedami near
Casablanca in
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...
.
[Drs. K. (Khadija) Arib](_blank)
(in Dutch), ''Parlment & Politiek''. Retrieved 19 October 2017. She came to the Netherlands when she was 15 years old. Her parents worked at a laundry service in
Schiedam
Schiedam () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of Rotterdam, east of Vlaardingen, and south of Delft. In the south the city is connected with the village ...
.
Arib studied
sociology at the
University of Amsterdam. Before her political career, she was a
civil servant, educator and
social work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...
er.
Politics
Arib is a member of the
Labour Party (', PvdA) and a member of Parliament from 19 May 1998 to 29 November 2006 and since 1 March 2007. In the House, she focussed on matters of
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
,
discrimination,
abuse,
domestic violence, and
youth
Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Y ...
care. She has been criticised (mainly by members of the
Party for Freedom
The Party for Freedom ( nl, Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) is a nationalist, right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands.
Founded in 2006 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man faction in the House of Representatives, it won nine ...
) for her dual citizenship and for her part in an advisory committee to the
King of Morocco. In 2012, she made an unsuccessful attempt to become speaker and became first deputy speaker instead. She was elected speaker in an interim election on 13 January 2016, defeating three other candidates. On 29 March 2017 Arib was re-elected as speaker,;she was the only candidate for the position.
Following the
2017 Dutch general election, Arib chose
Edith Schippers
Edith Ingeborg Schippers (born 25 August 1964) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businesswoman serving as President of the DSM Company since 1 February 2019.
Schippers, a political consu ...
as ''informateur'', whose role is to explore possible governing alliances. Following Schippers' resignation, she named
Herman Tjeenk Willink and
Gerrit Zalm
Gerrit Zalm (born 6 May 1952) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businessman.
Zalm studied Economics at the Free University Amsterdam obtaining a Master of Economics degree and worked as a ...
for the position. After the
2021 Dutch general election, Arib lost her position as speaker. She became a member of the opposition and was part of the PvdA fraction. After anonymous allegations of misconduct at the end of September 2021, Arib left the parliament on 3 November 2022.
Political positions
During her career, Arib has been a champion for women's rights and the empowerment of women with a migrant background in the Netherlands; she was a founding member and president of the Moroccan Women in the Netherlands Foundation. In 1989, she was held prisoner in Morocco with her 3 children, after publicly addressing issues concerning the position of women in Moroccan society. After intervention by the
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was allowed to return to the Netherlands.
Electoral history
Bibliography
* 1992: ''Marokkaanse vrouwen in Nederland'' (Moroccan women in the Netherlands) with Essa Reijmers
* 2009: ''Couscous op zondag'' (Couscous on Sundays)
* 2011: ''Allah heeft ons zo gemaakt'' (Allah made us like this)
References
External links
Khadija Arib(in Dutch) at the House of Representatives website
Khadija Arib(in Dutch) at the Labour Party website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arib, Khadija
1960 births
Living people
20th-century Dutch civil servants
20th-century Dutch educators
20th-century Dutch non-fiction writers
20th-century Dutch politicians
20th-century Dutch women politicians
20th-century Dutch women writers
21st-century Dutch non-fiction writers
21st-century Dutch politicians
21st-century Dutch women politicians
21st-century Dutch women writers
Dutch social workers
Dutch sociologists
Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians
Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
Moroccan emigrants to the Netherlands
People from Casablanca-Settat
Speakers of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
University of Amsterdam alumni
Women legislative speakers
Dutch women sociologists