The Story Of The First Lebanese Woman MP

Myrna Bustani was elected as a member of parliament in 1963, succeeding her then recently deceased father to become the first Lebanese woman MP in history. Compared to the rest of the region, Lebanon was one of the first Arab countries to allow women into its legislative bodies.

Syria elected its first woman MP in 1973 (although some had been appointed in 1960), Jordan in 1993, Iraq in 1980, Kuwait in 2009, UAE in 2007, Yemen in 1978, Oman in 2000, Egypt in 1957, Algeria in 1945, Tunisia in 1959, and Morocco in 1993.

Myrna Bustani’s reign was a short one, lasting just one year from 1963 to 1964. She took over her father’s seat in a by-election in 1963, and elections for a new parliament were held in 1964. Bustani, born 1937, had her early education at the College Protestant Français before graduating with a BSc in Psychology from the University of Lyon in 1958.

Her father had been a Lebanese MP since 1951 and became one of the leading politicians and businessmen in the country before his demise in an airplane crash in 1963. In 1985, Myrna Bustani established the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar at her father’s American alma mater, MIT, to honour his memory.

Bustani has been a trustee at the American University of Beirut since 1979, and she is currently president of the Al Bustan International Festival of Music and Arts, owner of the Al Bustan Hotel, and partner at the Construction and Trading (CAT) group her father founded.