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Fatima Payman

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Fatima Payman
Senator for Western Australia
Assuming office
1 July 2022
Personal details
Born1995
Afghanistan
Political partyLabor

Fatima Payman (Template:Lang-fa; born 1995) is an Afghan born Australian politician and Senator-elect of the Australian Senate after the 2022 Australian federal election. A member of the Labor Party, she was declared elected to the Senate for Western Australia on 20 June 2022, and will begin her term on 1 July. She will become 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, Afghanistan around 1995, the eldest of four children, and fled the Taliban for Pakistan 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. Once in Australia, her mother started a business giving driving lessons. In 2018, her father died of leukemia.

Education and career

Payman studied pharmacy, planning to head towards medicine, but instead got involved in politics. She joined the United Workers Union in 2008 as an organiser and was also president of Young Labor WA, both organisations she joined due to the exploitation she saw her father experience in various jobs. She intended to use the 2022 election campaign as "practice" before seriously running in 2025.

Political career

Payman was third on the Labor party's ticket for the Senate at the 2022 Australian federal election and thus not expected to win a seat. 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 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 Taliban 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 was elected after a swing of 6.92% to Labor and a 9.24% swing against the Liberal party in Western Australian Senate voting. 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." She has also said she wants to "normalise hijab wearing".

References

  1. ^ ‘I want to normalise hijab wearing’: WA’s newest Labor senator on making history (Report). The Guardian. 2022.
  2. ^ Fatima Payman claims sixth WA Senate seat for Labor as Michaelia Cash reinstated (Report). ABC News. 2022.
  3. ^ 'Making history today': Fatima Payman becomes parliament's first hijab-wearing Muslim woman (Report). SBS News. 2022.
  4. Refugee Senate hopeful seizes opportunity (Report). 7News. 2022.
  5. "Editorial: An election result for modern Australia". The West Australian. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  6. ^ Fatima Payman - Labor Candidate for Senate (Report). 7News. 2021.
  7. ^ Hastie, Hamish (23 June 2022). "The story of Australia's first hijab-wearing Muslim senator – and why she's looking forward to meeting Pauline Hanson". WA Today. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  8. Taliban takeover prevents Labor Senate hopeful from renouncing Afghan citizenship (Report). 7News. 2022.
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