Najat Vallaud-Belkacem

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (نجاة فالو بلقاسم; Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⴰⵜ ⴱⵍⵇⴰⵙⵎ; born 4 October 1977) is a Moroccan-born French former politician and jurist.

A member of the Socialist Party (PS), she served in a number of ministerial positions during the presidency of François Hollande.

Second in a family of seven children, Vallaud-Belkacem was born on 4 October 1977 in the Moroccan countryside in Bni Chiker, a village near Nador in the Rif region.

Her grandmothers were respectively Algerian and Spanish, both married to Moroccans.

She spent her early years growing up on her grandparents' farm.

In 1982 Vallaud-Belkacem joined her father, a construction worker, with her mother and elder sister Fatiha.

From then on, she grew up in a poor neighborhood of Abbeville, a town in northern France, and then in a suburb of Amiens.

She got French nationality at 18.

Vallaud-Belkacem graduated from the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris) in 2002.

Vallaud-Belkacem joined the Socialist Party in 2002 and the team of Lyon mayor Gérard Collomb in 2003, leading actions to strengthen local democracy, the fight against discrimination, promotion of citizen rights, and access to employment and housing.

Elected to the Regional Council of Rhone-Alpes in 2004, she chaired the Culture Commission until she resigned in 2008.

At Sciences Po, she met Boris Vallaud, whom she married on 27 August 2005.

In 2005, she became adviser to the Socialist Party.

In 2005 and 2006 she was a columnist for the cultural programme C'est tout vu on Télé Lyon Municipale alongside Stéphane Cayrol.

In February 2007, Vallaud-Belkacem joined Ségolène Royal's presidential campaign team as a spokeswoman, serving alongside Vincent Peillon and Arnaud Montebourg.

In March 2008 Vallaud-Belkacem was elected conseillère générale of the Rhône department in the cantonal elections with 58.52% of the votes in the second round, under the banner of the Socialist Party in the canton of Lyon-XIII.

From 2008 until 2014, she also served as a councillor of the city of Lyon, responsible for major events, youth and community life.

In 2009, Vallaud-Belkacem once again served as Royal's spokesperson ahead of the 2011 French Socialist Party presidential primary, this time alongside Delphine Batho.

Following François Hollande's victory in the presidential primary, Vallaud-Belkacem became his campaign spokeswoman for the 2012 presidential election.

On 16 May 2012, Vallaud-Belkacem was appointed by President Hollande as Minister of Women's Rights and spokeswoman for the government in the Ayrault government and later in the First Valls Government.

In the First Valls Government, she subsequently served as Minister of City Affairs (2 April 2012 to 25 August 2014) and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (2 April 2012 to 25 August 2014).

In her capacity as minister, Vallaud-Belkacem made headlines in 2012 when she introduced anti-sexism courses with presentations on stereotyping, inappropriate language, wage disparity and domestic violence for her fellow cabinet members.

That same year, she announced that she wanted to abolish prostitution in France and in Europe; following her initiative, the National Assembly later voted in favour to give France some of the most restrictive legislation on prostitution in Europe.

In 2013, she declared as officially revoked an old bylaw requiring women in Paris to ask permission from city authorities before "dressing as men", including wearing trousers (with exceptions for those "holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse").

Vallaud-Belkacem was the first woman to serve as Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Research, holding the position from 2014 to 2017 under Prime Ministers Manuel Valls and Bernard Cazeneuve.

In 2014, opinion polling found Vallaud-Belkacem to be among the most popular politicians in the country.

Vallaud-Belkacem was chosen to serve as Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Research on 27 August 2014, becoming the first woman to hold the role.

In late 2014, shortly after her appointment as Minister of Education, Higher Education and Research, opinion polls ranked Vallaud-Belkacem only second in popularity among French politicians, after Alain Juppé.

In early 2015, the New York Times described her as "one of the rising stars" within her party.

By the end of Hollande's presidency, she was one of the few officials who had been a member of his various governments throughout his time in office.

After 15 years in public office, Vallaud-Belkacem decided to take a break from politics in June 2017.

She supported the presidential campaign of Benoît Hamon in the 2017 French presidential election.

Despite speculation, she announced that she would not seek the leadership of the Socialist Party at the Aubervilliers Congress in 2018.

Instead, she publicly endorsed Olivier Faure as new chairman.

In March 2018, Vallaud-Belkacem joined research and polling firm Ipsos as CEO of its Global Affairs division.

The department carries out research (on impact, public policy evaluation…) that helps international institutions, NGOs, international foundations and other actors which act in the global public interest better make decisions.

Since 2020, she has been the director of the One Campaign in France.

After two years at Ipsos, Vallaud-Belkacem announced in 2020 that she would be joining the One Campaign as director for France.

In addition, she became the president of France terre d’asile in 2022.

In addition, Vallaud-Belkacem launched and co-directs the Gender Equality and Public Policy programme at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.