Syria’s women MPs include actress and niqab wearer

Women hold 22 of the 207 current seats in Syria's first post-Assad parliament, with lawmakers including a television actress, a Christian engineer, a Kurdish leader, a novelist and Syria's first MP to wear the full-face niqab.

The assembly held its opening session in July, though some seats have not yet been filled. Women's representation is just over 10 percent, similar to the previous assembly under Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled by an Islamist alliance in 2024 after more than a decade of civil war.

Fifteen of the women lawmakers were appointed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa under Syria's transitional constitutional arrangements.

Rouzaina Lazkani, 36, known for television dramas, was among 70 lawmakers appointed by Sharaa. Madonna Beshara, 38, a former civil engineering professor and a devout Christian, is one of parliament's deputy speakers.

Fasla Yousef, 56, was selected by an electoral body in Hasakeh province. She is also part of the Kurdish National Council, a coalition of parties that opposed Assad's rule.

Novelist Nour Jandali, 48, was chosen by Sharaa as a representative for Homs. Mirvat Toutou, who has a degree in commerce and economics and taught for 13 years in Idlib, is the first Syrian lawmaker to wear the niqab.

Toutou's late husband, Abu Omar Saraqeb, commanded a coalition of Islamist and jihadist factions that took control of Idlib in 2015 and was killed in an airstrike the following year. Another lawmaker, Aisha al-Dibs, previously headed the new authorities' women's affairs office for several months.