Fatima Payman ( fa, فاطمه پیمان; born ) is an Afghan-born Australian politician and Senator of the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

after the

2022 Australian federal election The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth conse ...

. A member of the Labor Party, she was declared elected to the Senate for Western Australia on 20 June 2022 and began her term on 1 July. She became the Australian Parliament's first hijab-wearing Muslim woman.

Early life and family

Payman's grandfather was a member of parliament in Afghanistan. Fatima Payman was born in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

around 1995, the eldest of four children, and fled the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

for

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

with her family when she was five years old. Her father arrived in Australia via boat in 1999 and spent time in immigration detention, after which he worked as a security guard, kitchen hand and taxi driver, so he could afford to sponsor the migration of his wife and four children. The rest of the family arrived in Australia in 2003, when she was eight, and settled in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. Once in Australia, her mother started a business giving driving lessons. In 2018, her father died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

Education and career

Payman graduated from the

Australian Islamic College Australian Islamic College is a multi-campus independent Islamic co-educational primary and secondary day school, located in Perth, Western Australia and Adelaide, South Australia. The school was founded in by Hajji Abdallah Magar, with 50 st ...

Perth, where she was head girl, in 2013. She studied pharmacy, planning to head towards medicine, but instead got involved in politics. She has a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology and sociology and a Graduate Diploma of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Payman joined the

United Workers Union The United Workers Union (UWU) is an Australian trade union. Described as the biggest blue-collar union in Australia, the UWU covers more than 150,000 workers within over 45 industries, including warehousing, defence, hospitality, health, disabil ...

in 2018 as an organiser and was also president of

Young Labor Australian Young Labor, also known as the Young Labor Movement or simply Young Labor, is the youth wing of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) representing all ALP members aged between 15 to 26. The organisation operates as a federation with independen ...

WA, both organisations she joined due to the exploitation she saw her father experience in various jobs. She has also worked as a program coordinator at the Edmund Rice Centre WA and as electorate officer for Pierre Yang. She is a board member of the Australian Islamic College.

Political career

Payman was third on the Labor party's ticket for the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

at the

and thus not expected to win a seat. She intended to use the 2022 election campaign as "practice" before seriously running in 2025. Payman was naturalised as an Australian citizen in 2005, although this did not automatically revoke her Afghan citizenship. As

Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia Section 44 of the Australian Constitution lists the grounds for disqualification on who may become a candidate for election to the Parliament of Australia. It has generally arisen for consideration by the High Court sitting in its capacity as the ...

requires all candidates to be a citizen of Australia only, she approached the Afghanistan embassy in Australia in October 2021 to renounce her Afghan citizenship. The embassy advised her that they could not finalise the renunciation because it had no contact with the new

government that seized control of the country in August. The Labor Party received legal advice that Payman was nevertheless still eligible to be elected, as she had taken all reasonable steps to renounce her Afghan citizenship, noting that the Afghan Embassy in Australia did not even know whether the various departments and officers who would be tasked with processing her application in Kabul even exist following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. Payman won the sixth and final Senate vacancy after a swing of 6.92% to Labor and a 9.24% swing against the Liberal party in Western Australian Senate voting. Her election was the first time the ALP won three Senate seats in WA since the Senate had been expanded in 1984. Elected at age 27, she is third youngest Senator in Australian history and will be the youngest serving Senator. She has said her priorities will include "getting more people from diverse backgrounds involved in politics, improving early childhood education, and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

." She has also said she wants to "normalise

hijab In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...

wearing".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payman, Fatima Australian Labor Party politicians Afghan emigrants to Australia Afghan expatriates in Pakistan Australian people of Afghan descent Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia Naturalised citizens of Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Australian Muslims Muslim politicians Living people Labor Left politicians Women members of the Australian Senate 1995 births Members of the Australian Senate