Wafa Bani Mustafa

Entering the Jordanian Parliament as the youngest elected MP in 2010, and the first woman to head a bloc in that legislative body, Wafa Bani Mustafa served three subsequent terms (2010-2017) and was a founding member of the Arab Regional Parliamentary Forum and the Population and Climate Parliament Network. Throughout her career, Ms. Bani Mustafa has both launched and served on committees to propel women’s rights in Jordan and throughout the Middle East. Aside from tackling women’s empowerment, she has worked regionally and globally on human rights issues in general, and on youth issues in particular, helping to craft legislative amendments that benefit women and advocating civil rights for the children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians; she called for amendments to the Residency and Foreign Affairs Law to grant residency for the children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians. She has also lobbied for inclusion of an article in the Penal Code to criminalise acts of sexual harassment, and for the elimination of Article 308, which waives charges against a rapist if he marries his victim.