Souad Sbai

Souad Sbai (Arabic: سعاد السباعي, romanized: Suʿād as-Sbāʿī; born 1961) is a Moroccan-born Italian politician and writer.

Sbai in 2008

She was born in Settat, Morocco, on 5 February 1961.^[1] She has lived in Italy since about 1979.^[2]

She was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2008 to 2013,^[1] and in 2011 sponsored legislation to ban wearing the burqa in public in Italy.^[3] She has been criticised, alongside Daniela Santanchè, for "setting the political agenda according to a demeaning image of Muslim women".^[4] In 2009 she received death threats from Muslim radicals.^[2]

Her doctoral thesis (Naples, 2005) was "Diritti delle donne e associazionismo femminile nei paesi del Maghreb", ("Women's rights and women's associations in the Maghreb countries").^[5]

She is a member of the Italy-USA Foundation.^[6]

Selected publications

• Sbai, Souad (2010). L'inganno : vittime del multiculturalismo. Cantagalli. ISBN 9788882724665. (Deception: victims of multiculturalism)
• Sbai, Souad (2012). Il sogno infranto. Curcio. ISBN 9788897508113. (The broken dream)
• Sbai, Souad (2015). Isis : dietro il palcoscenico dell'orrore (Iizione ed.). ISBN 9788868680961. (Isis: behind the stage of horror)