Soraya Post was born on 15th October 1956, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her father is a German Jew and her mother belongs to the Swedish Traveling people, the Resande. She is a politician and Romani human rights activist from Sweden. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) on 25th May 2014, as the representative of the Feminist Initiative party and joined the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament shortly after. She was the rapporteur for the report on ‘Fundamental rights aspects in Roma integration in the EU: fighting anti-Gypsyism’, adopted on 25 October 2017. She chose to represent the Feminist Initiative party for the 2014 European elections because she fully identified with its programme but claims that she would not have accepted to run in the elections, as a member of another party. In 2015 she was a driving force behind the European Parliament’s resolution, ‘International Roma Day; anti-Gypsyism in Europe and European Union’s recognition of the Memorial Day of the Roma genocide, during World War II’. She is co-president of the European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI).

Soraya Post has worked, as a National Minorities expert, at the Västra Götaland region’s Office of the Justice and Equality Committee in Gotherburg and then became a member of the International Romani Women’s Network (IRWN) in 2000, where she was elected chairperson in 2005. A member of the European Roma and Travellers Forum from 2004, she was elected Vice President in 2013.

She was the initiator of the Agnesberg Folk High School, in 2007. She has been a member of the Swedish Radio Board and the Delegation for Roma Affairs, of the Swedish government. At the Delegation, she was part of the Board that wrote the final report, including the recommendation for a ‘truth and reconciliation commission’. This resulted in a government ‘white paper’.

She was also a member of the Commission Against Antiziganism (anti-Gypsyism), where she worked with a proposal for establishing a national Roma centre in Sweden.

Bengt O Björklund