Syria elects 1st female parliament speaker

DAMASCUS - Hadiyeh al-Abbas, a member of the ruling al-Baath party, was elected on Monday, as the speaker of the Syrian parliament, the first woman to claim the position in Syria's history.

According to state news agency SANA, al-Abbas was elected during the first session of the newly elected parliament.

SANA said al-Abbas was the first woman to be the speaker of the parliament since the Syrian Parliament was formed in 1919.

Al-Abbas was born in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour in 1958. She holds a PhD in agricultural engineering from the university of Aleppo city in northern Syria.

She was also elected as a member of the parliament between 2003 and 2007.

Her election to the post is deemed as a historic move made in Syria during the country's five-year-old conflict.

Syria's parliamentary elections were held last April in government-controlled areas, with some 3,500 candidates vying for the 250 parliamentary seats amid a boycott by opposition groups.