BEIRUT — The Beirut port explosion made Najat Saliba go into politics as a “counterreaction.”

I felt like I had to step out of my ivory tower in academia and start actually pushing for a new way of living forward,” the atmospheric chemistry specialist told Al-Monitor. Now, Saliba is one of eight female representatives in the Lebanese parliament, a record number of women among the 128 seats. Lebanon has one of the highest overall gender gaps in the world, and some of these women aim to fix that, now from inside the institutions.

"It is not easy to implement a gender agenda in a sexist parliament, but I will fight for it,” said Halime el-Kaakour. The newly elected member of parliament is known for her feminist agenda. "My expertise and my beliefs in gender equality have been one of the main reasons for attacks during my campaign, and it still continues,” Kaakour told Al-Monitor. But she is not going to give up. As one of the faces of the feminist claims during the protests of the October 17 revolution in 2019, she is committed to work toward better policies for women.

The 2022 parliamentary elections secured eight seats for female representatives, two more than the 2018 vote. But despite this progress, they only represent 6.25% of the parliament. Half of these women — Saliba and Kaakour included — come from the protest movement. "It is a great victory for us women to show that we treat each other on an equal basis,” Saliba said. It was a feminist revolution.”