Nalin Pekgul (née Baksi, born 30 April 1967) is a Swedish

Social Democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

politician, nurse and former parliamentarian. She was the first Muslim woman to sit in the Swedish Parliament.

Life

Pekgul was born to

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

parents in

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

, Turkey, but migrated to Sweden with her family in 1980 when she was 13. She is the sister of the Kurdish nationalist and anti-racism activist Kurdo Baksi and niece of the author

Mahmud Baksi Mahmud Baksi (Mahmûd Baksî), (16 September 1944 – 19 December 2000), was a Kurdish people, Kurdish writer and journalist. He was born in the village of Örensu, Kozluk, Suphî in the Batman Province of southeastern Turkey. He began to publish a ...

. Pekgul trained as a nurse, a profession in which she worked both before and after her election as a politician.

Political activities

In 1982, Pekgul joined the

Swedish Social Democratic Youth League The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League ( ; SSU) is a branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Sweden. The president has been Lisa Nåbo, since August 2021. Organization The members form loc ...

in Tensta, a suburb of Stockholm. Between 1994 and 2002, Pekgul was a member of the Swedish parliament. She was chairwoman of Social Democratic Women in Sweden () 2003–2011.

Aftonbladet (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lar ...

noted that Pekgul was the first Muslim woman to be elected to the Swedish parliament. Pekgul has supported a progressive form of Islam and ideas of Islamic feminism. She supports the

Swedish monarchy The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parliamentary system: see the Ins ...

and has argued that the Social Democrats should remove calls for a republic from their party programme. After an absence from Swedish politics of seven years, Pekgul announced in 2018 that she would make a political comeback to campaign against religious extremism and honour culture. She campaigned in Gothenburg with Ann-Sofie Hermansson, chairman of the municipal council. She told Aftonbladet that it is the fight against the

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( , SD ) is a Nationalism, nationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. As of 2024, it is the largest member of Sweden's Right-wing politics, right-wing bloc and the sec ...

that engages her. The Social Democrats have been criticised for not raising issues of honour violence for fear of losing votes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pekgul, Nalin 1967 births Living people People from Batman, Turkey Swedish politicians of Kurdish descent 21st-century Swedish politicians 21st-century Swedish women politicians Swedish Muslims Members of the Riksdag from the Social Democrats Kurdish women in politics 21st-century Kurdish politicians 21st-century Kurdish women