Najah al-Attar

Her Excellency
Najah al-Attar
نجاح العطار
Vice President of Syria
In office
23 March 2006 – 8 December 2024
Serving with Farouk al-Sharaa (2006–2014)[1]
Faisal Mekdad (2024)
PresidentBashar al-Assad
Preceded byZuhair Masharqa
Abdul Halim Khaddam
Minister of Culture
In office
1 December 1976 – 19 January 2000
PresidentHafez Assad
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byMaha Qanout
Personal details
Born (1933-01-10) 10 January 1933 (age 91)
Damascus, French Syria
Political partyBa'ath Party
Other political
affiliations		National Progressive Front
SpouseMajid al-Azma
RelationsMuhammad Rida al-Attar [ar] (father)
Issam al-Attar (brother)
Profession
  • Politician
  • linguist
  • writer

Najah al-Attar (Arabic: نجاح العطار; born 10 January 1933) is a Syrian politician who served as the vice president of Syria from 2006 to 2024. She is the first Arab woman to have held the post.[2] Previously she was minister of culture from 1976 to 2000.

Early life and education

Attar was born on 10 January 1933 and raised in Damascus as a member of a Sunni Muslim family.[3][4][5] Her father was among the first Arab nationalist leaders who took part in the 1925-1927 Syrian revolt against the French Mandate of Syria. She studied at the University of Damascus, graduating in 1954, and obtained a PhD in Arabic literature from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom in 1958.[6] She also received a number of certificates then in international relations and in literary and art criticism.

Career

Attar is an accomplished translator and started teaching in high schools within Damascus after her return from Scotland, then worked in the Department of Translation of the Syrian Ministry of Culture. In 1976, she was appointed minister of culture,[6] serving in that post until 2000. On 23 March 2006, she was appointed vice president.[3]

Political alignment

Although Attar was vice president and served as a long-term minister in Syria, a state largely controlled by the secular Ba'ath Party, her brother, Issam al-Attar, was the leader of the Damascus faction of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and lived in exile in Aachen, West Germany since the 1970s, which saw a government persecution of various Islamist political movements.

References

  1. ^ "Syria's Assad reappoints woman VP but mum on Sharaa". 20 July 2014. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Syria's First Female Vice President Hailed as Progress for Women". Arab News. 24 March 2006. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  3. ^ a b Moubayed, Sami (30 March – 5 April 2006). "Vice-President Najah al-Attar". Al Ahram Weekly. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  4. ^ "Assad inner circle takes hard line in Syria conflict" Archived 25 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, The Daily Star, 26 December 2012.
  5. ^ Syria Archived 22 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine Country Studies
  6. ^ a b "The First Woman Minister in the Syrian Government" (PDF). Al Raida (2). September 1997. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.