Badia Skalli (born 1944) is a Moroccan politician. Alongside Latifa Bennani-Smires, she became one of the first two women in the House of Representatives when she was elected to parliament in 1993.

Biography

Skalli was born in

El Jadida El Jadida (, ; originally known in Berber as Maziɣen or Mazighen; known in Portuguese as Mazagão) is a major port city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, located 96 km south of the city of Casablanca, in the province of El Jadida and the re ...

in 1944.Hinde Taarji (2000
A Woman in the Lion's Den
''UNESCO Courier'' She began studying law at the Casablanca branch of Mohammed V University in 1962, where she became involved in student politics, joining the executive committee of the National Union of Moroccan Students. Following student protests in 1965, all members of the committee were drafted into the army except Skalli. She also joined the National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP), which began operating underground. She married, but her husband was killed three years later in a road accident. Following a 1975 split in the UNFP, she became a founder member of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) and headed its women's section. She was a USFP candidate in the 1976 local elections but failed to be elected. She was subsequently an unsuccessful candidate in the 1977 parliamentary elections, but was elected to a local council in the 1983 local elections. Following the elections, the USFP planned to appoint her president of the council. However, the resulting uproar led to the party appointing a less experienced male councillor. Skalli was nominated as an USFP candidate for the 1993 parliamentary elections and was one of two women elected to the House of Representatives, becoming the first women in the Parliament of Morocco. She was re-elected in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, but lost her seat in the 2002 elections, when the USFP failed to include her on its women's list.Eve Sandberg & Kenza Aqertit (2014
''Moroccan Women, Activists, and Gender Politics: An Institutional Analysis''
p145

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skalli, Badia 1944 births Living people People from El Jadida Mohammed V University alumni Members of the House of Representatives (Morocco) Socialist Union of Popular Forces politicians 21st-century Moroccan women politicians 21st-century Moroccan politicians