Australia gets first Muslim woman MP

SYDNEY: Australia’s Green Party of New South Wales said on Sunday that Mehreen Faruqi will become Australia’s first Muslim member of Parliament.

Faruqi, of Pakistani origin, will replace NSW upper house MP Cate Faehrmann in the new parliament later this year.

“As the first Greens MP in NSW from a migrant background, I’m also excited about building stronger relationships between the Greens and migrant communities,” Faruqi said in a statement.

She said she looks forward to tackling issues concerning gender equality and same-sex marriage, among other topics.

Faruqi was preselected by the Greens in a postal ballot from among a field of seven women-only candidates, in another first for the party.

“Mehreen’s Pakistani heritage not only breaks new ground for the Greens but it breaks new grounds for politics in NSW, and indeed the whole country,” Faehrmann said in a statement on Sunday, according to local media reports.

The party said Dr. Faruqi has been the first Muslim woman appointed to any parliament in Australia, the party said.

04/09/2013 – 17:13