Soumia Benkhaldoun (; 13 March 1963 – 28 June 2023) was a Moroccan engineer, politician, and activist in the field of

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

. Benkhaldoun was born on 13 March 1963. She graduated from the

École Mohammadia d'ingénieurs The Mohammadia School of Engineers (, abbreviated EMI; ) is the first to be established engineering school in Morocco. EMI was founded in 1959 by the King Mohammed V as Morocco's first institute of technology, polytechnic, it's one of the largest s ...

. She started working as State engineer in 1986, was a professor at the Ecole Superieure de Technologie Fès between 1987 and 1994, and then at Ibn Tofail University between 1994 and 2006. She also worked as an expert in the field of women and development with

ISESCO The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO, formerly ISESCO) is a specialized organization that operates under the aegis of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and is concerned with fields of education ...

, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In addition she has been part of various organizations and committees in the field of gender equality. On 10 October 2013, she was appointed Minister Delegate to the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Executive Training in the Benkirane II Government. She resigned from this position in May 2015, and was replaced by Jamila el Moussali. Benkhaldoun died on 28 June 2023, at the age of 60.

References

1963 births 2023 deaths Mohammadia School of Engineering alumni Academic staff of Ibn Tofail University 21st-century Moroccan women politicians 21st-century Moroccan politicians Moroccan feminists Justice and Development Party (Morocco) politicians {{Morocco-politician-stub