Najat Driouech

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Najat Driouech Ben Moussa (born 1981) is a Spanish-Moroccan politician with the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC). She has been a member of the Parliament of Catalonia since the 2017 elections and is the first Muslim woman to sit in that parliament. She was born in Asilah, Morocco, and moved to Catalonia in 1990, living in Barcelona. She studied Arab Studies and Social Work, and has taught Arab Studies at the University of Barcelona. She was the first woman from El Masnou’s Muslim community to get a university degree and has worked for the El Masnou town council on migrant issues since 2001.

Elected to the Catalan Parliament in 2017, Driouech spoke against the far-right Vox party in December 2018 after Vox joined the Andalusian regional parliament. Vox leader Santiago Abascal shared the video and criticized her for her religion.

In the 2021 Catalan elections, she moved from 10th to 4th on ERC’s list. Three years later she kept the same 4th position, and ERC won 12 seats in that constituency.