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First woman parliament speaker elected in UAE, GCC

Xinhua, November 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday elected the first female top official in the history of the country and that of any Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states.

Amal Abdullah Juma Karam Al-Qubaisi was elected on Wednesday as speaker of the UAE Federal National Council (FNC), the first woman to hold such a top post in the country or any other GCC member states.

In 2006, Al-Qubaisi became the first woman to be elected to the UAE's parliament since the nation's founding in 1971, according to UAE state news agency WAM.

In 2011, she was elected as first deputy speaker of the FNC.

Al-Qubaisi hold a bachelor's degree in architecture from the UAE University and both master's and PhD degrees from the University of Sheffield in Britain.

Al-Qubaisi is also the first female top official in the GCC, an economic and political union founded in 1981 that comprises the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. Endit