Rima al-Qadiri

Rima al-Qadiri (; born 1963) is a Syrian politician who served as Minister for Social and Labour Affairs from 2015 to 2020.

Early life and education Rima al-Qadiri was born in 1963 in Damascus, Syria. She graduated from Damascus University's French Literature Department in 1986. After graduating, she worked in various private institutions, as well as at the Commercial Bank of Syria and the Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade. She also joined the Planning and International Cooperation Commission in 2009 as deputy chairman, and was appointed chairperson in 2014.

Career She was appointed Minister for Social and Labour Affairs on 20 August 2015 by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, succeeding Kinda al-Shammat, and was officially sworn in on 22 August.

In April 2016, she met Syrian expatriates from São Paulo, Brazil, and discussed ways they could support the Syrian government.

She retained her position upon the establishment of the Imad Khamis government on 3 July 2016.

She visited Belarus in August 2017 and met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on 28 August. They discussed ways of providing education to Syrian children in Belarus. Three days prior, on 25 August, she visited a 10-year-old Syrian patient undergoing tumor surgery at the Belarusian Children's Oncology, Hematology and Immunology.

She was sanctioned by the European Union on 14 November 2016 for being a minister in the Syrian government.

She was succeeded by Salwa Abdullah on 30 August 2020.

Post-Assad On 4 July 2025, al-Qadiri and Kinda al-Shammat were arrested in Damascus on charges of being involved in the disappearance of hundreds of children. The Syrian Interior Ministry's media office told Enab Baladi on 6 July that they were arrested based on preliminary findings and testimonies provided by the families of detainees and the disappeared, gathered jointly by the Ministries of Interior and Social Affairs. Their arrests came as part of an official investigative committee established to investigate the disappearance of detained children in orphanages during the Assad regime.