Lubna Jaffery

Lubna Boby Jaffery (born 2 April 1980) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. She has served as minister of culture and equality since 2023 and a deputy member of parliament for Hordaland since 2009. She previously served as Bergen city commissioner for labour, social affairs, and housing from 2019 to 2021.

Early life and education

Born in Norway to parents of Pakistani origin she grew up in Bergen. She took her secondary education in Ã…sane in 1999, and at the University of Bergen she took the cand.mag. degree in 2004 and the master's degree in 2007. Jaffery married Lennart Fjell in 2003, they got divorced in 2010 and they have one daughter together.

Political career

Youth league

She was an adviser in the Workers' Youth League in 2000, before becoming a central board member from 2000 to 2004. She had previously chaired the county branch from 1998 to 2000.

Local politics

Jaffery was a member of the Bergen city council from 1999 to 2003 and Fjell municipal council from 2003 to 2007.

In 2019, she was appointed Bergen City Commissioner for Labour, Social Affairs and Housing in the Roger Valhammer city government. She resigned from this position when she was promoted to permanent representative in the Storting to cover the duties of Marte Mjøs Persen. She was succeeded by Ruth Grung as city commissioner.

Government

In 2008, Jaffery was appointed a political advisor in the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. From March to October 2009 she was a political advisor for the Minister of Health and Care Services. From 2009 to 2012 she was a State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture as a part of Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet.

Parliament

Jaffery has been a deputy representative in the Storting since 2009, having been re-elected since. In 2021, she was promoted to full member, covering for Marte Mjøs Persen after she was appointed to the Støre Cabinet. In the Storting, she sat as a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Care Services in 2021, before being moved to the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs, where she also served as first vice chair between 2021 and 2023.

Minister of Culture and Equality

Jaffery was appointed minister of culture and equality on 28 June 2023 following Anette Trettebergstuen's resignation due to impartiality issues.

2023

In July, she attended the Moldejazz music festival, and in commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the 2011 Norway attacks, called for action against outsiderness and extremism, and to secure local communities.

A day before the 2024 state budget was presented, Jaffery confirmed that the government would be allocating 10 million NOK to combat sports poverty for children youths in what the government designated as an "ambitious" action plan.

On 30 November, Jaffery and TV2 signed a new commercial public broadcasting agreement for the channel for the new term from 2024 to 2028.

In December, Jaffery announced the government's strategy for gaming, which was originally meant to be put forward the year before. With the announcement, she stated that politics should be more offensive in that regard and that with the strategy, the field would lifted up more.

2024

Following the release of a UN report into racism in Norway, Jaffery pledged that the government would take the report into consideration and continue the fight against racism and discrimination. She went on to highlight the importance of inclusion and that the discrimination level is low in the country.

Jaffery received the report into male equality from the commission specialising in said issues in April. The report concluded that some measures against more male equality would be to have a two parted paternity leave, more flexible school starts and increased recruitment of men to more female dominated jobs. Jaffery highlighted that there are still inequality gaps between genders and that the declining birth rates were worrying.

In late June, she announced that the government would be postponing the implementation of a third gender in identification papers until 2032, on the recommendation of the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs. Furthermore she stated that national supervision would be implemented for public and private actors for gender diversity.

On 25 June, Jaffery gained widespread attention, both in national and international press, after flashing her breasts in a show of support for LGBT people.

On the issue of AI illustrations, Jaffery expressed in late September that companies ought to be free to choose between AI and human illustrations. She did however emphasise that AI should be utilised as a tool and expressed hopes for a continued active demand and appreciation of human illustrators in the future.

She expressed disagreement with finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum in November after he expressed support for the Christian Democrats' leader Dag Inge Ulstein's views on the gender debate and that there was only two genders. Jaffery reasserted the Labour Party's position on inclusion of queer and non-binary people and their recognition of a third gender. She also criticised the Christian Democrats for importing the debate from the United States and making the issue larger than necessary.

Criticism was pointed towards the government and the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision in December for failing to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and failing to appropriate accommodation for disabled individuals, by the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud. Jaffery argued that the municipalities were responsible to uphold the convention and that the government was listening to proposals for incorporating the convention into Norwegian law after the report from the expert committee has been consulted by parliament.

2025

In January, she spoke out against the Progress Party's proposal to privatise the NRK and cutting 300 million NOK economic support to other media outlets. She claimed that their policy would weaken the democratic readiness, investigative journalism against politicians and other power structures.

Jaffery accused the Christian Democrats in early May, of catering to certain voter groups by passing a recent policy at their party convention that would seek to exclude the Rainbow flag from being flown on public school flag poles. She argued that the flag symbolises acceptance of different sexualities, the LGBT community and that it sends a positive sign to queer children and youths that they are welcomed. She further accused them of sacrificing safety and acceptance of children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffery, Lubna
1980 births
Living people
University of Bergen alumni
Politicians from Bergen
Labour Party (Norway) politicians
Norwegian state secretaries
Norwegian women state secretaries
Norwegian people of Pakistani descent
Women members of the Storting
Members of the Storting 2021–2025