Nurul Izzah Anwar

Profile Overview

Nurul Izzah binti Anwar (born 19 November 1980) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh from 2018 to 2022. A member of the People's Justice Party and the eldest daughter of the 10th prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, she also represented Lembah Pantai in the Parliament of Malaysia from 2008 to 2018.
Born in Kuala Lumpur into politician family of Anwar Ibrahim and Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Nurul Izzah graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2007 with a master's degree in international relations. She became publicly active in 1998 during her father Anwar's dismissal and imprisonment, participating in the Reformasi movement and co-founding the People's Justice Party in 1999. She entered parliament in 2008, winning the Lembah Pantai seat, and campaigned on multiracial inclusivity, government accountability, and social justice. In parliament, she advocated open government, equitable development, increased representation of women and youth, and policies based on need rather than ethnicity.
In 2010, two years after joining parliament, Nurul Izzah was elected as the PKR's youngest vice president. She retained her Lembah Pantai seat in the 2013 general election and was active in promoting political reform, transparency, and parliamentary oversight. She faced several detentions and investigations related to her activism, including under the Sedition Act, and engaged in advocacy on Sabah sovereignty and electoral matters. In 2018, she won the Permatang Pauh seat, served on parliamentary committees, and led initiatives such as the TVET Empowerment Committee and the Multidimensional Poverty Index report. She resigned as PKR vice-president in 2018 but was reappointed for the 2022–2025 term. After losing her parliamentary seat in 2022, she served as an adviser on economic and social policy and chaired the think tank Social & Economic Research Initiative. In 2025, she was elected deputy president of PKR, focusing on party unity and engagement with grassroots members.
Nurul Izzah has advocated for greater political participation by women and strengthened legal protections for women and families in Malaysia. She has engaged in civil rights and policy reform, including national prison reform, parliamentary reforms such as establishing a central authority for TVET, and introducing private member's bills on issues including hate crimes, the Sedition Act, the Petroleum Development Act, and media regulation. As MP for Permatang Pauh, she contributed to public health, women's vocational development, poverty studies, and recognition of technical and vocational skills. She has also supported Palestinian rights, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and submitting protest notes to multiple embassies with parliamentary and civil society backing. Domestically, she has emphasised the need for locally rooted leadership in Sabah, accountability over the Freedom Flotilla incident, and careful review of corporal punishment in schools.