Maysun al-Damluji
| Maysoon Salem Al-Damluji | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Minister of Culture of Iraq | |
|
In office June 2004 – March 2006 |
|
| Prime Minister | Ayad Allawi |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 February 1962 Baghdad, Iraq |
| Political party | Assembly of Independent Democrats |
| Alma mater | Architectural Association School of Architecture |
Maysoon Salem Al-Damluji (Arabic: ميسون سالم الدملوجي); born 1962) first name also spelt Maysun, is a Liberal Iraqi politician and women's rights campaigner. She was Iraq's Deputy Minister of Culture from June 2004 until March 2006 and is currently a member of the Council of Representatives for the Al-Wataniya national coalition, headed by former Prime Minister & current Vice President Iyad Allawi. Al-Damluji is the president of the Iraqi Independent Women's Group (IIWG). Her brother, Omar Al-Farouq Al-Damluji, was Iraq's Minister of Housing in 2004-5. Her nephew Hassan Al-Damluji is a British-Iraqi development strategist.
In 2010 Al-Damluji became the official spokesman for the Iraqiya movement, which later dissolved in December 2012.
Al-Damluji was born in 1962 in Baghdad to a distinguished family of doctors and politicians. Her great uncle, Abdullah Beg al-Damluji, was the first Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia in the 1920s, before he returned to Baghdad, becoming Iraq's first Foreign Minister as well. Later, her uncle Feisal Al-Damluji served as a member of Parliament and a government minister several times before the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état. Both of Maysoon's parents were renowned professors of medicine; her father, Dr. Salem Al-Damluji was the head of Baghdad's medical school, which had then considered the best in the Arab world.
Al-Damluji moved to London in 1981, after her parents were forced to leave Iraq because they refused to join the Baath Party. Joining her brother Saad in exile, Maysoon graduated from the Architectural Association in 1985 and started a successful practice in West London.
Always intimately connected with her homeland, Maysoon was an important fixture in London's Iraqi community, founding and promoting organizations in support of Iraqi arts, including the Iraqi Artists Association, the Kufa Gallery, and the Studio of the Actor. After 1990 she became increasingly involved in opposition politics and campaigning against the Baath regime.
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