Rachida Dati

Her parents immigrated to France in 1963.

She was the second child of eleven in an impoverished family (eight girls and three boys: Malika, the oldest, elected vice-president for public transport and mobility of the Métropole du Grand Nancy; Fatiha; Jamila; Sanaa; Nadia; Noura; Najat and Houari; Jamal and Omar, both convicted of drug trafficking).

She spent her childhood in Chalon-sur-Saône.

Even though Dati was raised in a devout Islamic environment, she attended Catholic schools; Dati's own personal religious beliefs have been described as "unclear".

When asked about her North African origins, she stated she saw herself first and foremost as a "daughter of France".

Dati studied at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, where she received a master's degree in Economics, as well as at Panthéon-Assas University in Paris, where she later received a law degree.

At the age of sixteen, Dati started working as a maid and as a paramedical assistant.

She then worked for three years as an accountant at Elf Aquitaine while at university.

Rachida Dati tried to study medicine, but failed twice in her first year.

Rachida Dati (born 27 November 1965) is a French politician and former magistrate who has been serving as Minister of Culture in the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal since 2024.

Rachida Dati (رشيدة داتي) was born on 27 November 1965 in Saint-Rémy, Burgundy, to a Moroccan father, a bricklayer named M'Barek Dati (1934–2017), and an Algerian mother, named Fatima-Zohra (died in 2001).

In October 1985, she completed a DEUG in economics at the University of Dijon.

After meeting Jean-Luc Lagardère in 1990, Dati entered the audit management team of Matra Nortel communication.

She later spent a year in London at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the records management and archiving department.

In 1994, she was an auditing supervisor and secretary-general of the bureau of urban development studies at Suez (then Lyonnaise des Eaux).

From 1995 to 1997, she worked as a technical advisor at the legal management division of the Ministry of Education.

In 1997, following the advice of Simone Veil and Albin Chalandon, Dati joined and was admitted to the École nationale de la magistrature, a public educational institution which offers courses necessary to become a magistrate.

Upon leaving in 1999, she became a legal auditor at the Bobigny tribunal de grande instance (high court).

She went on to become judge for collective procedures at the tribunal de grande instance in Péronne and eventually an assistant to the attorney general of the Évry tribunal.

In 2002, Dati became Nicolas Sarkozy's advisor, working for him on an anti-delinquency project.

In 2006, she joined the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party.

Dati previously served as Minister of Justice from 2007 to 2009 under President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Dati was a spokesperson for Sarkozy during his 2007 presidential campaign.

Following his victory, Sarkozy appointed her to the Government.

On 14 January 2007, she was named spokesperson for Sarkozy on the day he was chosen as UMP candidate for the presidential elections of April 2007.

After Sarkozy's victory on 6 May 2007, she was appointed Minister of Justice, making her the first political figure born to North African immigrant parents to occupy a sovereign ministry in a French government.

Her rationalization of the court system was publicly opposed by judicial professionals.

Later on, it was recognised by the French Court of Auditors as one of the most ambitious reforms of the judicial institution.

When the Sarkozys' marriage began to break up, Dati frequently went on official presidential trips to accompany Nicolas Sarkozy.

She was elected to the mayorship of the 7th arrondissement of Paris in 2008, when she also entered the Council of Paris.

A member of The Republicans (LR), she also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2019, representing Île-de-France.

On 23 January 2009, Sarkozy announced that Dati would take the second position on the UMP candidate list for the Île-de-France constituency in the European Parliament election in June 2009, to which she was elected.

She left her post as minister after being elected as an Member of the European Parliament.

Soon after she left the government, in the summer of 2009, Dati switched to law, becoming a junior magistrate and assistant prosecutor.

She also founded a consulting company called "La Bourdonnais consultant," which she had to dissolve at the beginning of 2010 to be able to resume the profession of lawyer, which she had to do by special dispensation (like other former magistrates).

She sits on the editorial board of the French version of the Huffington Post, where she writes a weekly column about women's issues.

A member of the European People's Party group in the European Parliament, Dati served on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the parliament's delegations for relations with the Mashreq countries, to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, and for relations with the Arab Peninsula.

In parliament, Dati was the Parliament's rapporteur on several texts dealing with countering terrorism and the prevention of radicalisation and recruitment of European citizens by terrorist organisations.

In the 2020 Paris municipal election, she unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Paris against incumbent Anne Hidalgo.

Following the election, she was installed as opposition leader in the Council of Paris.