Nafees Fazal

Nafees Fazal (4November 1947) is an Indian politician who was the first Muslim woman to hold a ministerial post in South India. She was, at first, the minister of medical education and later became the minister of science & technology during the Krishna ministry in Karnataka. She was elected as a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council for two terms, from 1994 to 2006.

Early life Nafees Fazal was born on 4 November 1947. She is the granddaughter of Khan Bahadur Mohammed Moosa Sait, a former sheriff of Chennai. She went to a boarding school in Lovedale and Yercaud.

Political career

In 1983, she unsuccessfully contested the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike municipal elections from the Shivajinagar ward on a Congress ticket. Her political mentor was Margaret Alva. She was the president of the Bangalore wing of the Mahila Congress.