Khadija Arib


Khadija Arib is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands since 12 December 2015. She was formally elected on 13 January 2016 but had already served as Acting Speaker since the resignation of Anouchka van Miltenburg on 12 December 2015. Arib became a member of the House of Representatives following the 1998 Dutch general election and has been reelected since, with a brief interruption between 2006 and 2007.

Early life

Khadija Arib was born on 10 October 1960 in Hedami near Casablanca in Morocco. She came to the Netherlands when she was 15 years old. Her parents worked at a laundry service in Schiedam.
Arib studied sociology at the University of Amsterdam.
Before her political career, she was a civil servant, educator and social worker.

Politics

Arib is a member of the Labour Party and an MP from 19 May 1998 to 29 November 2006 and since 1 March 2007.
In the House, she focussed on matters of racism, discrimination, abuse, domestic violence and youth care. She has been fiercely criticised for her dual citizenship and for her part in an advisory committee to the King of Morocco. In 2012, she made an unsuccessful attempt to become Speaker and became First Deputy Speaker instead. She was elected Speaker in an interim election on 13 January 2016, defeating three other candidates. On 29 March 2017 Arib was re-elected as Speaker, she was the only candidate for the position.
Following the 2017 elections, Arib chose Edith Schippers as informateur, whose role is to explore possible governing alliances. Following Schippers' resignation, Arib named Tjeenk Willink and Gerrit Zalm for the position.

Political positions

During her career, Arib has been a champion for women's rights and the empowerment of women with a migrant background in the Netherlands; she was a founding member and president of the Moroccan Women in the Netherlands Foundation. In 1989, she was held prisoner in Morocco with her 3 children, after publicly addressing issues concerning the position of women in Moroccan society. After intervention by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was allowed to return to the Netherlands.