Mauritius’s First Female President Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has noted that her risk-taking nature was her motivation to become the first female president of her country. As a Scientist, she explained that politics was a new venture she was ready to explore not knowing what laid ahead for her.
In an interview on the Sania Farooqui Show, Dr. Ameenah explained, “I don’t come from a political family,I have no background in politics but I think the qualities I brought into politics at the contractual moment I think fitted well in the political narrative and so these qualities if I may resume them, they were the fact that I was a woman, I was untainted by politics, I had some credibility and I was also a muslim woman. So all these in the political world became plus points so when all these were proposed to me as I said I had no idea what I was landing myself in for but I told myself let’s go for it. I have always been good at taking risk, so this was another risk i took and it paid off “.
Touching on the low representation of women in politics across the globe and especially in Africa, the former President explained that she has always being an advocate for women to take on political roles. Dr Ameenah said from an early age the confidence of the girl child needs a boost so they grow up aiming for greatness. Using herself as a yardstick she said her family especially her father helped her build confidence from childhood informing her decision to pursue science and make a career out of it though she admitted that external forces tried severally to deter her. ” I personally feel and I have been saying we need more women in that space, we need more women because these women shape the policy when it is been taken at that table, so we need more women,” she noted.
Dr. Ameenah further emphasized the importance of women participating in politics, not just in leadership roles. She highlighted that women, with their unique domestic backgrounds, possess valuable leverage to influence policy directions within government structures.
Also, the first female dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Mauritius, Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim said her love for science begun as a young girl in a rural area in Mauritius who was privileged to get access to education made possible by her father whom she said believed in education for the girl child. She also sang the praise of her teachers she explained were motivated to ” infect her with science”.
Recounting her tenure as President of Mauritius , Dr Ameenah explained that her feat has been an encouragement to a lot younger women who look up to her and strive to succeed in their chosen career paths. “I think it was really a high moment at the time, nobody had dared before. I had dared, I got there and I said i never had this background before. So it was a matter of daring, it was a matter of succeeding. For me the journey to the State House was a message to that girl growing up in my village that she can wake up one day and say I too can make it because if someone else has done it with a dent of hard work, I could take the risk. To me that is more important than my personal journey,” she explained.
Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim born 17 October 195 is a Mauritian politician and biodiversity scientist who served as the sixth president of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018. She is one of Africa’s most educated and respected female figures. The unassuming mother of two has also achieved many other feats, including being the first female dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Mauritius. In 2007, she was the recipient of a prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award for her research on the exploration and analysis of plants from Mauritius and their bio-medical applications.
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