Hadja Lahbib (born 21 June 1970,

Boussu Boussu (; pcd, Boussu-dlé-Mont) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. As of January 1, 2006, Boussu had a population of 20,058. The total area is 20.01 km², which gives a population density of 1,002 in ...

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

, Belgium) is a Belgian journalist, TV presenter, director and politician, serving as the

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

of Belgium since July 2022.

Early life

Hadja Lahbib was born on 21 June 1970 in

, near the city of

Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...

, to a family of Algerian origin.

Career as a journalist

Lahbib graduated in journalism from the

Free University of Brussels University of Brussels may refer to several institutions in Brussels, Belgium: Current institutions * Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking university established as a separate entity in 1970 *Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a D ...

and worked for a long time for the Belgian Radio-Television of the French Community (

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

). In particular, she was a special correspondent in Afghanistan and the Middle East, and presented the television news for two decades. In May 2013, she presented the final of the

Queen Elisabeth Competition The Queen Elisabeth Competition ( nl, Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd, french: Concours musical international Reine Élisabeth) is an international competition for career-starting musicians held in Brussels. The competition is named after Queen ...

, but she refused explicitly to mention the winner had Israeli nationality. She was also trapped by her colleague who let her comment on a non-existing symphony.

Controversies

Lahbib visited politically disputed

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

between Russia and Ukraine in July 2021. She did not tell how exactly she got there and did not recognize Crimea as the territory of Ukraine. She went to the "Global Values" festival, which is organized by the Sevastopol Academic Russian Drama Theater named after Lunacharsky and organized by

Katerina Tikhonova Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova ( rus, Катерина Владимировна Тихонова, , kətʲɪˈrʲinə ˈtʲixənəvə, Putina, Путина; born 31 August 1986) is a Russian scientist, manager, and former acrobatic dancer. ...

daughter of

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

. In 2021, it was held on 23–25 July. On Instagram, she published fragments of a choreographic performance from the festival. After the trip, she was asked by

was she coming back from Russia or Ukraine. Lahbib did not answer clearly, but said: "to land at Simferopol airport, you need a Russian visa."

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium

Discussion with the IAEA in 2022 Prior to her appointment as foreign minister on 15 July 2022, Lahbib was only politically active with the socialist organisation, Solidaris, and she was not a member of the liberal

Reformist Movement The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions. The party is in coalition as pa ...

(MR), whose leader

Georges-Louis Bouchez Georges-Louis Bouchez (GLB), (born March 23, 1986) is a Belgians, Belgian politician and lawyer. Since 2019 he has served as a Senate (Belgium), Senator and leader of Mouvement Réformateur, Mouvement réformateur. Early life Bouchez was born i ...

unexpectedly nominated her for the post of Belgian Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs to replace

Sophie Wilmès Sophie Wilmès (; born 15 January 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2019 to 2020. She later served as minister of Foreign Affairs from 2020 to 2022. A member of the Reformist Movement, she is the fir ...

. She took the oath before King Philippe on the same day. At the press conference at which she was introduced, she said about her political position: After the interview, Georges-Louis Bouchez asked her to join MR, and she did so. On 7 October 2022, Lahbib and two lawmakers –

Darya Safai Darya Safai ( fa, دریا صفایی, born 7 April 1975) is an Iranian-Belgian author, human rights activist and politician who has been a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives for the New Flemish Alliance since 2019. Early life and ed ...

and

Goedele Liekens Goedele Maria Gertrude Liekens (born 21 January 1963 in Aarschot) is a Belgian politician, sexologist and television presenter, currently serving as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives for the party Open VLD, to which she was elec ...

– cut their hair in parliament, in solidarity with anti-government demonstrations in Iran triggered by the death in police custody of 22-year-old

Mahsa Amini On 16 September 2022, the 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini,; ku, ژینا ئەمینی, Jîna Emînî died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious mor ...

. On 26 November 2022, Hahbib and prime minister

Alexander De Croo Alexander De Croo (born 3 November 1975) is a Belgian politician and businessman who has served as the prime minister of Belgium since October 2020. De Croo was born in Vilvoorde, Flemish Brabant, and studied business engineering at the Vrije ...

visited Ukraine.

Works

* ''Afghanistan. Le choix des femmes.'' Éditions Racine, Brüssel 2008, ISBN 978-2-87386-581-8; Documentary 2007 (52 min.) * ''Le cou et la tête.'' – Documentary about the women's village Umoja in northern Kenya (26 min.) * ''Patience, patience, t'iras au paradis !'' Film 2014

References

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Lahbib, Hadja 1970 births Living people Belgian directors Belgian journalists Belgian television presenters Foreign ministers of Belgium People from Boussu Vrije Universiteit Brussel alumni Belgian people of Algerian descent