Young Palestinian woman appointed finance minister for one week

Amal Zamaara is a 22-year-old Palestinian girl who, in the first case of its kind, made a deal with incumbent Finance Minister Hassan Abu Lebda to take his place for one week during which she could exercise full powers as the Palestinian finance minister.

The story began when Zamaara, who had just obtained her degree in business administration a few months ago, conducted a workshop on the problems of university graduates and the rise in unemployment rates. Finance Minister Hassan Abu Lebda was among the attendees.

In the workshop, Zamaara asked the minister, “What if you were a university graduate and couldn’t find a job? And what if I were the finance minister?

“The minister liked the idea and decided to give me his position for one whole week,” Zamaara told Al Arabiya in a phone interview.

Zamaara said that employees at the ministry treated her as if she was the real minister and she was given all the powers and authorities accorded to Lebda.

“That is why this one week at the ministry enabled me to get a full view of what the finance minister does and what kind of responsibilities fall on his shoulders.”

She added that this experience, the first in history, also made her more determined to dedicate her time and effort to the youth’s problems and the right of university graduates to get proper jobs.

“I have so many ideas and I wished that as minister I could have met President Mahmoud Abbas but he and the entire Palestinian leadership were busy applying for U.N. membership. I am still hoping to meet him, though.”

Despite not making any crucial decisions during her one week at the ministry, Zamaara was given the right to know all what was happening in the ministry including reading the minister’s mail.

“The minister refused to see the mail before I had seen it. I used to reply and he would evaluate those replies and I would also evaluate his remarks.”

Despite the uniqueness of the experience and the benefits she believes she got from being in the ministry, Zamaara admitted that one week was a very short time.

“I needed more time to start tackling the problems of youth and that is why I made little achievements as minister.”

Zamaara added that she also did not have enough time to be familiarized with how the ministry works and this made it hard to reach any of the objectives she had in mind in such a short time.

“I was not really aware at the time of the ministry’s duties and the way they are performed.”

Lebda actually halted all his activities as a minister during the time he handed his job to Zamaara and left her to manage the ministry.

“He was very happy about the experience and that a girl as young as I am would try to be in charge of such a complicated ministry.”

(This article was translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid.)