Egyptian-born Australian Anne Azza Aly was appointed Minister of Early Childhood Education and Youth in the cabinet of PM Anthony Albanese.
This makes Ms Aly the first ever Egyptian- Australian woman to be a cabinet minister in Australia.
Following his win with an overwhelming majority in the Federal Parliament, the new PM Anthony Albanese, Chairman of the Labor Party, has boasted of appointing a record number of women to his cabinet.
For the first time in Australia’s history, the new cabinet recorded also a number of Muslim ministers including Anne Azza Aly, and Ed Husic as Minister of Industry and Sciences.
“This is the largest number of women ever in an Australian cabinet with 10 women in the cabinet. In addition to that … there are 13 women in the ministry and 19 frontbenchers [which includes assistant ministers]. A record number, in all three categories for women’s representation – in cabinet, in the ministry and frontbench positions.”
Ms Aly is an Australian politician, political scholar, academic and counter-terrorism expert. She has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since the 2016 election, representing the electorate of Cowan.
Anne Azza Aly was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1967, and migrated to Australia at the age of two years. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1990 with a BA in English Literature, and in 1994, and received a Master of Education degree in 1996, and PhD in 2008, from Edith Cowan University. Her PhD thesis focused on media and culture, and was entitled Audience Responses to the Media Discourse on Terrorism: The Fear of Terrorism.
Before she entered parliament, Ms Aly worked in education and multicultural affairs policy for the Government of Western Australia After obtaining her PhD, she lectured in counter-terrorism and security at Edith Cowan University and at Curtin University . She has also operated her own policy consulting firm since 2011.
Watani International
6 June 2022
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