Lebanon elects record number of women to parliament

Lebanon has one of the highest overall gender gaps in the world, ranking 145 out of 153 countries.
A woman takes a photograph of another standing in front of a wall of cement blocks, set up by Lebanese security forces to bar a street leading to the parliament building, Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 24, 2020.
A woman takes a photograph of another standing in front of a wall of cement blocks, set up by Lebanese security forces to bar a street leading to the parliament building, Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 24, 2020. - Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images
Andrea Lopez-Tomas
Andrea Lopez-Tomas
@andrelopeztomas 

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.

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