| Parliament: | European |
| Constituency Mp: | the Netherlands |
| Term Start: | 2 July 2019 |
| Term End: | 15 July 2024 |
| Birth Date: | 11 February 1989 |
| Birth Place: | Zoetermeer, Netherlands |
| Nationality: | Dutch |
| Party: | Democrats 66 |
| Alma Mater: | Leiden University |
Samira Rafaela (born 11 February 1989) is a Dutch politician of Democrats 66. She served as a Member of the European Parliament between 2019 and 2024,[1] [2] and she was also a member of the Young Democrats.[2]
Rafaela grew up with her Jewish Dutch-Curaçaoan mother in Uitgeest. Her father was of Ghanaian-Nigerian descent and a practicing Muslim. She considers herself a progressive, liberal, feminist Muslim.[3]
She attended Bonhoeffer College in Castricum[4] and studied public administration at Leiden University. She did research on the causes of radicalization and terrorism and obtained a master's degree in Crisis and Security Management.[5] She worked as a policy maker and administrative advisor for the municipality of Amsterdam. In 2016, she transferred to the Police Netherlands, where she acted as project leader for inclusion.[6] As a social entrepreneur, she worked in Africa with young talent and as an international trainer and speaker on women's participation, leadership, security and inclusion.
Rafaela was elected a Member of the European Parliament in the 2019 election, making her the first Dutch MEP with Afro-Caribbean roots.[7] She has been a member of the Committee on International Trade (since 2019), the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (since 2019)[2] and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (since 2021).[8]
In addition to her committee assignments, Rafaela is part of the Parliament's delegations to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) and to the EU–Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee.[2] She also co-chairs the European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup and is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Artificial Intelligence and Digital[9] and the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability.[10] [11]
On 3 May 2022, an internal commission of D66 investigated complaints of 3 former co-workers of the European D66-delegation about, among other things, abuse of power by Rafaela.[12] She was reprimanded, but a mediation committee ruled in November of the same year that the investigation was sloppy and that the reprimanding was unjustified.[13]
In 2023, Rafaela – together with Malin Björk and Evin Incir – alleged in a letter to the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola that their fellow MEPs Anders Vistisen, Isabella Adinolfi and Cristian Terheș breached Parliament's rules on offensive language during a debate on the ratification of the 2011 Istanbul convention against gender-based violence and urged Metsola to investigate.[14] On 21 December 2023, she announced she would not seek re-election in the 2024 European Parliament election.[15] Her term ended on 15 July 2024.[2]