First veiled Italian Muslim woman runs for local elections

Maymouna Abdel Qadar has become the first Italian Muslim woman wearing the hijab or headscarf to run for local elections. Abdel Qadar, who is of Palestinian descent, is running in the central city of Perugia – the elections will take place on June 6th and 7th. She is running for Perugia’s communal council for the Sinistra e Liberta coalition, which is made up of mainly socialist, anti-war, and secular parties. “Though being the first veiled Muslim woman that has ever run for elections in Italy, until now I have received a positive response from the people, who have also appreciated my choice, and look at me as a novelty of the local political scene,” said Abdel Qader. Maymouna is a political science graduate of the University of Perugia, and the daughter of Mohammed Abdel Qader, the imam of Perugia. She is also one of the founders of the Young Italian Muslims association. She has stated that her objective is to represent Italy’s second generation of Muslim immigrants in Italy – what she calls “the new Italians.”

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