Saera Khan

Who is Saera Khan?

Saera Tithi Khan is a Bangladeshi-Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.

She was elected to the Parliament of Norway from Oslo in 2005. She had previously served as a deputy representative during the term 2001–2005. She was the only member of the parliament of immigrant background, until October 2007 when Akhtar Chaudhry took another of the Oslo seats. She did not seek reelection in 2009.

On the local level she was a member of Oslo city council from 1999 to 2005.

A Norwegian by birth Saera Khan is the first person of Bangladeshi descent to have become a Member of Parliament in Norway. Khan achieved the milestone at the age of 22 when she was elected an MP in 2001. Though born and brought up in Norway she has not forgotten her roots in the soil of Bangladesh. She is proud of Bangladeshi culture and social values, which she owns by birth. She is now in Bangladesh on an unofficial visit, mainly to meet her relatives, most of who live in Dhaka. However, she will take the opportunity to visit some of the Norway-funded projects such as children shelter homes, vaccination programmes and a few others that deal with street children.

Saera's political career began quite early. She joined Labour Youth, a front organisation of Social Democratic Labour Party at 16 and became a member of the City Council. It was perhaps the family environment, which imbued in her a natural interest in politics. Saera's father, Kamaluddin Khan, had been a leader of the Foreign Workers Union, an organisation for establishing the rights of foreign workers in Norway. Kamaluddin helped Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury who later became the first president of independent Bangladesh to arrange news conferences in Norway through which Sayeed informed of the liberation struggle of Bangladesh to the Norwegians as well as the rest of the world. Abu Sayeed stayed in his flat during his stay in Norway. Saera knew these things and was greatly inspired by her father's emotional attachment and strong feeling for his motherland. These inspired Saera immensely.