Lebanon unveiled a new government on January 22, 85 days after the resignation of prime minister Saad al-Hariri.

The Arab world’s first female interior minister has hailed her appointment as a “point of pride for all women”.

Lebanese politician Raya Hassan made history on Thursday when she became the first woman interior minister in the Arab world.

BEIRUT — Earlier this month, Lebanon voted in parliamentary elections to fill seats based on a new system of proportional representation.

In its highly anticipated parliamentary election in almost ten years, Lebanon saw a record number of women on the ballot. An unprecedented 113 women registered as candidates, and 86 of them made it to candidate lists.

Lebanon’s new Parliament will include six female lawmakers across the country, up from just four in the 2009-era Parliament, with several fresh faces.

There are only four women in Lebanon’s female-unfriendly parliament, where even the women’s affairs minister is a man. A record number of female candidates – 84 to be precise – are trying to correct that jarring imbalance in Sunday’s election.

Lawyers, journalists, engineers, architects, NGO workers: the profile of the female candidates for the Lebanese parliamentary elections is as diversified as society itself.