Lujaina Mohsin Haider Darwish (, born 23 June 1969) is an Omani politician. Along with Rahila Al Riyami, she was one of the first two women to be directly elected to the Consultative Assembly in 2000. In 2015 she was appointed to the

Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...

. Darwish is also the chairperson of ITICS at Mohsin Haider Darwish.

Biography

Born in 1969, Darwish was the eldest of three daughters of the businessman Mohsin Haider Darwish;To be on Forbes list means growing responsibility for Oman's Lujaina Darwish
Times of Oman, 16 October 2016 her sister Areej also became a businesswoman. She attended

Sultan Qaboos University Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) () is a public university located in al-Seeb, Oman. Established in 1986, it is one of the two public universities in the country and is named after Qaboos bin Said al-Said, the Sultan of Oman from 1970 until 202 ...

, where she earned a degree in English literature. She subsequently became a lecturer at the university, before joining the family business. In 2000 she was one of fifteen female candidates in the

general elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

.Omani woman who blazed a trail into the State Council passes away
Times of Oman, 6 February 2017 Running in

Muscat Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...

, she was one of two women elected. She was re-elected to the Assembly in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, but she did not seek re-election in the 2007 elections. During her time in the Shura Council she also became president of Sidab Football Club, the second woman in the Arab world to head a football club. She later became deputy chair of Mohsin Haider Darwish LLC,Deputy Chairperson
Mohsin Haider Darwish LLC and chair of its ITICS cluster. As a result she regularly featured in lists of the most powerful Arab businesswomen published by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''. In 2015 Darwish was appointed to the

. In January 2025 she was appointed as the Honorary Consul of South Africa in

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

. She is also a board member of the

Arab International Women's Forum Arab International Women's Forum (Arabic: المنتدى العالمي للنساء العربيات) or AIWF is a London-based umbrella organisation which brings together 1,500 associations, individuals, corporations and partnerships from 45 cou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darwish, Lujaina Mohsin 1969 births Living people Sultan Qaboos University alumni Academic staff of Sultan Qaboos University Members of the Consultative Assembly (Oman) Members of the Council of State (Oman) 21st-century Omani women politicians 21st-century Omani politicians